Elves don't die
by Green Queen of Clubs
Summary: Darcy was over S.H.I.E.L.D. and their secrets. She had nearly forgotten about Jane and Agent Coulson, and Thor. She was over it, and she wasn't bored at all. Really. But of course, aliens had to invade New York. And somehow, Agent Coulson, the Agent's Agent needed her. Who was she to refuse to serve her country? DarcyxClint
1. Chapter 1

**EH! I'm back! So, to make this clear, this is a Darcy/Clint story, that takes place during and after the Avenger's movie. There are no LOTR crossovers, just mine and Darcy's weird thinking. Otherwise, that's it, I hope you enjoy it!**

**Reviews always more than appreciated!**

**OOOOOOOO**

Darcy frowned, intent on keeping her brooding mood as long as possible. Why the hell was she here, anyway? She was done. Her internship had ended a few months ago and she had her degree, with honors of all things! Amazing the things that happen when S.H.I.E.L.D. put in a good word for you.

Anyway, the point was, she shouldn't have heard from them again. She signed her confidentiality papers and she was just getting used to normal, civilian life again while looking for a job. Even before Thor, Jane had thrown off her usual sleeping, eating, and every other pattern she had. Now she was trying to catch up with her friends and other acquaintances.

If she sometimes woke up in the middle of the night and went outside to watch the stars, or occasionally jumped up from her laptop to get pop tarts for Jane, well, it didn't matter. It was happening less and less now. She was getting over it.

She wasn't bored, not at all. Why would she be? It felt good to be normal again, why wouldn't it? She liked being normal. People didn't like weird politicians.

She wasn't bored, damnit!

It was a Sunday morning and Darcy had been walking around her flat in sweat pants and a tank top when her door bell had rang. She had frowned as she turned towards the door. Her flat mate was out at her boyfriend's and Darcy wasn't expecting anyone. She opened the door slowly.

She maybe wasn't expecting anyone, but she definitely _wasn't _expecting two stern looking men, dressed in black suits. She stared at them. One of them took out a card that identified him as Agent Taves, from S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Miss Lewis?"

Darcy swallowed, trying to control the dread she felt rising in her throat.

"Yeah?"

"We need you to come with us."

Darcy started to panic.

"What? Why? What happened? To Jane? Please tell me Jane's fine! She has to be!"

The other agent cocked his head, his eyes hidden by his glasses.

"Dr. Foster is fine, Miss Lewis. Some unexpected events occurred, and she was sent away. We believe it would be safest for you to go with her."

Darcy frowned and opened her mouth. Agent Taves cut her off.

"We can't explain right now. Pack whatever you would need for a few days."

Darcy wanted to protest, but these guys weren't the ones in charge. They were simply executing someone else's orders. She nodded and turned around to get her suitcase, starting to throw clothes in it and grabbing her bathroom kit. She also changed her own clothes, feeling that, wherever she was going, she wouldn't want to be in sleepwear.

In a matter of minutes, she was ready and standing by the door. Taves cocked an eyebrow, probably surprised she took so little time. Darcy huffed. Why did people always assume she was a lost puppy, unable to take care of herself or make intelligent and reasonable decisions?

She was an adult for God's sake!

The other agent cocked his head.

"Is that all?"

Darcy nodded, raising her head, perfectly regal, and walked out of the building calmly, like she was doing it of her own free will. Internally, she was rehearsing the speech she was going to throw at whoever had asked two grunts to kidnap her. She slid in the black car waiting at the door, settling in the passenger's seat as she waited for them to leave.

Taves and his colleague climbed in, looking mildly displeased she took the front seat and leaving them in the back. The driver didn't so much as look her way, lurching forward as soon as everyone was belted in. Darcy squeaked and grabbed the door for her dear life, while the car weaved through traffic.

In far less time than it should have taken, the driver parked at a heliport. A strange looking plane was waiting for them. The two agents entered it without a word and she arched an eyebrow. Really? Would it kill them to talk to her? To be polite at the very least.

She huffed, knowing it didn't really matter to them. They could probably taze her if she didn't cooperate. No witnesses around here. She climbed, grumbling under her breathe. It really wasn't fair.

She dropped into a seat. The car's driver was now at the plane's controls, Taves seated beside him. The other guy was talking into some kind of device, which seemed to be answering him. Darcy glared at him, but he ignored her.

"Stop trying to drill holes into my agent's head, Miss Lewis."

Darcy's head snapped up. A panel of the plane had switched to a screen, and Agent Coulson was looking at her serenely. She couldn't help the smile.

"Hey G-Man! How is it going?"

Coulson gave her an unimpressed look.

"Very well, Miss Lewis, thank you for asking."

Darcy chuckled. After Thor left them hanging in the desert, Coulson had helped her, Jane and Erik set up the lab again. He also gave her iPod back, which made him one of the best people around as far as she was concerned. He also helped her hone her scientist handling skills, muttering about Stark's antics.

They had some good times while Jane and Erik went into full genius mode. The one where they used so much jargon, no one else could follow what they were saying.

However, when her internship ended, Jane hadn't been able to find an excuse to keep her that S.H.I.E.L.D. considered satisfactory, so she was sent back to her college. She kept contact with Jane, when the scientist was in a mood to talk and complain about her new assistants. But Coulson was a bit harder to keep in touch with, since his very existence was pretty much classified.

All in all, she was pretty happy to see him. Even if she knew he was probably the one responsible for this circus. She smirked.

"You know, it is common courtesy to ask how someone's doing in return."

His eyebrow twitched.

"We both know full well it would do nothing but send you into a rant about your rights and the indignation of our actions."

Darcy snorted. See, that's why she liked the guy. Why bother with bullshit? Waste of time. She cocked her head.

"Why am I here?"

Coulson sighed.

"New Mexico's base had been destroyed. Imploded."

Darcy leapt forward, staring at the screen.

"Holy shit! Are you alright? Oh my god! That's where Erik was! How is he?"

Coulson sighed.

"Miss Lewis, please calm down."

She settled back, glaring at him, trying to read the answers out of his skull.

"The situation is complicated, and we aren't exactly sure what is going on, so please, bear with us."

She crossed her arms, arching an eyebrow and waiting for her explanation. Coulson sighed again.

"We lost control of the tesseract, and someone used it to create a passage directly into the base. Loki crossed it."

Darcy froze.

"Loki? As in Thor's psychotic brother, who sent the big robot to destroy Puerto Antiguo?"

Coulson nodded.

"Yes, the very same. He has somehow taken control of Dr. Selvig and one of our best agents. He used them to escape the base, which had become structurally unstable because of the tesseract."

Darcy tried to wrap her head around it, but she simply couldn't. It was far too weird.

"And you are sending me away because?"

Coulson pinched his lips.

"We are not aware of Loki's true motives, or of his relationship with Thor at the moment. However, both Selvig and our agent are aware of yours and Dr. Foster's link with Thor, and we think its safer to send you away until we know more."

Darcy pursed her lips, but couldn't help but agree with the logic.

"What about Erik?"

"There isn't much we can do for the moment. We are looking for them, but so far without success. We are assembling an expert team to track them down and stop Loki."

Darcy looked away.

"How much does Jane know?"

"She thinks we sent her to her current location for scientific purposes."

"How much am I allowed to say?"

"That is up to you, Miss Lewis."

She frowned, not sure what she was to do with that.

"Why did you tell me?"

Coulson's lips twitched infinitesimally.

"I was of the opinion that _'for Science' _wasn't going to be a good enough explanation for you."

Darcy snorted, and nodded. Coulson answered the gesture.

"Goodbye, Miss Lewis. I will contact you again when we know more."

"Ciao, Coulson. Go get the bad guy."

The agent nodded and the screen went black before disappearing behind the plane's wall once more. Darcy sighed and let her head fall back against the wall.

She was done, why was she back? She was just getting used to being a civilian again, it wasn't fair.

On the bright side, she was going to see Jane again. And maybe the two of them would be able to not worry themselves sick over Erik.

Maybe she shouldn't tell Jane about that one.

She fell asleep despite having just woken up. Planes had the displeasing tendency to lull her to sleep without fault. When the other agent shook her awake, they had been airborne for over six hours. She shrugged his hand off his shoulder, grabbed her bag despite Taves reaching for it, and exited the plane with her nose up, ignoring the aggravated looks the two agents were throwing her way.

She jumped on the tarmac, looking around. The air was colder than it had been back home, so she fished out her jacket from the bottom of the case. She was just zipping it up when she heard a shrill "Darcy!"

She looked up just in time to get a glimpse before the scientist engulfed her in a nearly too tight embrace. It wasn't fair someone so tiny was able to squeeze all the air out of her lungs that easily.

"Oh my god! Oh my god, oh my god!"

The scientist suddenly pushed her at arm's length, keeping her hands on her shoulders.

"What are you doing here?"

She was beaming, looking positively ecstatic at seeing her here. Darcy swallowed and sighed internally. No way was she telling Jane about Erik. No use in freaking her out.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. sent me here. They said you were getting unbearable and they needed my help to keep you alive, so here I am."

Jane looked a bit pained, which in turn made Darcy feel guilty since Jane had nothing to do with her being here. But hey, better that than scared. The scientist frowned.

"Darcy, I'm so sorry! I didn't interrupt anything did I?"

Darcy smirked.

"Nah. Just the interview for the job of my life, but otherwise everything's fine."

Jane stared at her, trying to decide whether or not she was joking. Darcy gave her the best Coulson Face she had, because this one was technically true. She had an interview the day after tomorrow for a dream job, but Jane was on a strict 'need to know' basis until further notice. Darcy chuckled, to pretend it was a joke, and Jane relaxed before she drew her ex-intern in another hug. It took a few moments before she freed her once more, and dragged her into the building.

"Come on, let's see your room!"

Her room appeared to be a unused corner of the facility. A quiet woman gave her a pillow and a blanket, while Darcy grimaced, trying not to think yet about the _immense_ comfort the 'room' offered. She would see to that later.

Jane, who had disappeared for a few minutes to go talk to someone, popped in again, still far too happy. Darcy watched her wearily, unsure how to handle it.

"Hey boss, were the new guys that bad?"

Jane scrunched her pretty face, confused. Darcy frowned, stuffing her hands in her pockets, hunching her shoulders.

"You just seem far too happy to see me."

The astrophysicist seemed even more puzzled, cocking her head to the side.

"Of course I'm happy to see you! Why wouldn't I be?"

Darcy arched an eyebrow.

"You mean except all the times you fled to the roof because you couldn't put up with me anymore?"

Jane pursed her lips.

"It doesn't count. And it wasn't half as bad after..."

Darcy finished the thought in her head. After Thor. After she knew her boss wasn't hunting after a dream. When she had to give her everything to keep Jane in a somewhat good health, because the scientist wasn't paying any attention to anything irrelevant to Thor's return.

Still, Darcy shrugged. Jane sighed.

"It's just, it'll be like old times. My new assistants are great, but it's not the same thing..."

Darcy raised an eyebrow, and allowed Jane to drag her away.

"They just won't accept that everything that happened with Thor, that the things he said to me, are true. They always doubt me. I think they're about two weeks away from committing me."

Darcy gave her a sympathetic look, and wrapped one arm around her friend's shoulders, squeezing. Jane smiled at her.

She showed her around the different labs and explained to Darcy what they were here to do, which of course the younger girl didn't understand much of. As usual, she nodded, and made interested noise whenever she would catch something she understood, or at the very least, a term she heard before. Most of them thanks to Jane. Anyway, she was impressed with just how much she could understand, compared to the gibberish she remembered of her first day with Jane.

The only thing she remembered from that day was that her relationship with most of the equipment was on the 'Touch with the eyes' basis. Until Jane was convince she wouldn't throw anything or smash stuff with a bat.

Jane was slightly over protective of her equipment. Darcy filmed her once cooing at some star gazing device. It went into her blackmail bank, in case she wanted a day off at some point. She never used it.

The other people in the lab stared at her, clearly wondering why she was there, with her glazed eyes and overwhelmed face. However, they apparently had been warned by S.H.I.E.L.D. because no one commented upon it. Which Darcy was grateful for. The less she needed to explain, the happier she was. For the moment, Jane seemed to be happy making her own assumption, which suited Darcy just fine.

The scientist could be spacey at times -pun intended- but she could smell a lie a mile away. Like a shark with blood. She was surprised Jane hadn't called her on it yet, but she was probably still too happy to really compute what Darcy said.

Jane strode around and Darcy smiled. The scientist was never as much at ease as when she was in a lab. And Darcy decided, _the Hell with it, _she missed this, and there was nothing wrong with it. She fell in step behind Jane, providing comments and innocent smiles. Jane would throw her fond looks and Darcy knew it wouldn't last. The older woman would go back to the mix of amusement and exasperation that was the basis of their relationship.

Darcy was fine with that. She hoped the agents left a message for her roommate, notifying her she hadn't been kidnapped by aliens and that she wouldn't come back for a while. If she had her way. She usually did.

She would have to talk with Coulson.

For the moment, she had to take care of Jane. She was damn good at it.

Jane said something that sounded important and Darcy gave her an emphatic 'Ah!' that satisfied her.

OOOOOOOOOO

The girls had been at the facility for three days, doing one thing or the other. The team seemed to have accepted Darcy, and most were grateful for having someone to take on the lesser tasks, instead of sparing an intern for it. She even heard the main researcher mention to Jane that he was thinking of hiring one after she left.

So, while Jane did her science thing, she was busy running errands, making coffee, and cooking. Apparently, malnutrition when in full science flow wasn't restricted to Jane, and often Darcy nearly stuffed the food down their throats. Stubborn genius idiots.

She was in the lab, seated on a chair in the corner, waiting for someone to ask for something to drink, or sent on yet another glasses hunt. Suddenly, a woman she learned to identify as Camille, ran in, lab coat flapping against her legs.

Everyone straightened up, curious. Camille stopped, using a table to balance herself, completely out of breathe. Finally, she managed to rasp out between her pants.

"New York. New York is being attacked."

There was a beat of silence, and the whole place exploded all at once. Jane looked at Darcy, horrified. The ex-intern didn't even bother to fake surprise. Loki was behind this. The lab head shouted.

"Shut up!"

Everyone turned to him, expectant.

"To the dining room."

Most of them frowned, but followed him. Jane fell back, looking at Darcy with sharp eyes. Darcy did her best to look confused and a bit frightened. Well, she was frightened, but not confused. Jane spoke slowly.

"What do you know?"

Darcy gave her wide, innocent eyes. Jane rolled her eyes.

"Pull the other one, Darcy. What do you know?"

Darcy sighed.

"S.H.I.E.L.D.'s base was attacked, three days ago. That's why we were sent here."

Jane frowned, and cocked her head.

"What does that have to do with us?"

Darcy pinched her lips.

"Loki was the one who destroyed it."

Jane paled, and lengthened her stride, sliding in the room, plopping down on a seat. The lab head had removed a wood panel and was looking for a news channel on the hidden television. He finally found one, and everyone gasped. The city was swarming with flying machines, attacking civilians.

Darcy walked to the lab head, who was leaning on the wall watching the screen with a pinched look. She settled herself beside him.

"I thought you weren't suppose to have any contact with the outside world."

He shrugged, never leaving the screen with his eyes.

"It's for emergencies. And Camille was phoning home for her mother's birthday."

Darcy nodded, it made sense. She caught a glimpse of Iron Man who was shooting at the invaders. She couldn't help but frown, and feel her gut curl. Iron Man alone couldn't fight all of them.

A plane, like the one she arrived in, flew in, and crash landed. The behind opened, and three people exited, including, if her eyes weren't tricking her, Captain America. Judging by the shouts and cheering, they weren't. Just when she thought her life couldn't get any weirder.

The two other, a man and a woman, dressed in black, weren't famous as far as Darcy was concerned. The three of them quickly started kicking ass.

Did that guy fight with a bow?

Ah well, when you fought alongside Captain America, you could afford to use a bow and arrows.

For a few minutes, the four of them did their best to contain everything, but there were always more aliens coming. Because it was apparently aliens. Someone managed to get a close up, and the creatures definitely weren't human.

Suddenly, a flash of red flew by the screen. Both Jane and Darcy straightened, and the scientist stood slowly up. Everyone else threw them confused look, but they didn't care.

Could it be?

The being landed, and everyone could see the red cape, the weird armor and the hammer. Darcy leapt toward Jane, and caught her before she did something stupid, like kissing the screen. It didn't keep the scientist from half sobbing, half shouting.

"Thor!"

Darcy tightened her hold, and watched as Thor joined the fight. They saw him trying to reason Loki, only to be stabbed. Jane let out a small squeal, and started shivering. Darcy petted her hair, not knowing what to do with herself.

How was she supposed to reassure a girl whose boyfriend was busy fighting an alien invasion started by his own brother?

If there was a guide book for that one, Darcy hadn't read it. Maybe she should write it. She was sure she could make some money with it.

'How to deal with your weird life.'

Sounded good. Anyway, Jane was still shaking, but Darcy managed to wrangle her back into her chair, and kept her arms around the scientist's shoulders. She wasn't letting Jane go in the foreseeable future.

They all gasped when a giant flying armored snake arrived. Iron Man took up distracting it, but no one seemed able to defeat it.

They watched as a nondescript man arrived, and suddenly blew up into an enormous green thing, who singlehandedly smashed the snake. One of the assistant's whispered a scared "The Hulk." Darcy raised an eyebrow, remembering the trouble this thing caused in New York a few years back. One of her ex-boyfriend's was obsessed with this kind of thing and could talk about it non-stop for hours.

The Captain send them to fight. Jane was a ball of tense muscles beside her, staring at the TV like she was trying to drill holes through it.

After what seemed like an eternity, Iron Man went through the portal with _something. _The lab head cursed and muttered, "A nuke." Darcy bristled at the idea that someone targeted Manhattan with a nuclear bomb. Idiots. Idiots everywhere.

And all the aliens crashed. Dead. Whatever was on the other side of the hole, was essential to their well being. Iron Man fell through the portal just in time as it closed, finally.

Everyone frowned when he continued to fall. The Hulk jumped to catch him. He landed hard, and between Thor, the Captain and The Hulk, they revived him. When it was obvious everyone was fine, Darcy dragged Jane out of the room. The scientist started to protest but Darcy was having none of it.

"You're not staying there. It'll do you no good. Thor's fine."

Jane pursed her lips, but finally allowed herself to be lead to her room. She curled up on her bed, wrapping her arms around her knees. Darcy propped herself beside her friend, and was terribly glad she was sent here, and that Jane wasn't alone.

But, as she watched Jane, who was still shaking, eyes watering, she swore bodily harm to Coulson.

He should have warned her. Sent her a signal, some code about the invasion, a message to keep Jane away from the rest of the personnel. It wasn't fair that the scientist had to share this moment, the first moment she saw Thor again, the fear of seeing him hurt or dead.

It wasn't right she had to show this to people who couldn't understand.

Who didn't know that she already saw him die once. That she had been waiting for so long, and couldn't even be reunited with him.

Camille popped her head in. She gave a compassionate look to Jane, who was still lost to the world, and an understanding one to Darcy, who had appointed herself as the woman's bodyguard.

"An Agent Hill called. The both of you need to be ready at dawn tomorrow to go back to... the shield? Anyway, she said you would know what it meant."

Darcy nodded and Camille looked back to Jane, pursing her lips, eyes soft.

"If you need anything, just ask. It'll be our pleasure."

Darcy nodded, smiling at her.

"Thank you Camille. I think she just needs time to think it through."

The other woman nodded, and closed the door behind her. Darcy sighed, letting her head fall back.

She was giving them points for being quick, but she was going to kill Coulson. He was the one who sent them here, and he didn't even called them himself.


	2. Chapter 2

Darcy ended up falling asleep beside Jane that night, holding the other woman tight. The scientist shook for a few hours, long after the sobs stopped. Darcy kept quiet, rubbing her back. She never knew what to do in these situations and falling asleep in the middle of the night, still wearing her clothes, wasn't something she had been eager to experience again. It reminded her a bit too much of the many pajamas parties she attended in her teen age years, where complaining about your sad love life and gorging yourself on junk food was mandatory.

At the very least, Jane had a good reason to be that way. When Darcy had still worked for her, she did her best to make sure the scientist expressed her feelings, doubts and depression. However, from what she gathered about the new team, they weren't exactly encouraging Jane to open up about Thor.

Basically, the scientist had been running on a lack of food, sleep, and hadn't been able to get rid of her excess of emotions ever since Darcy left. No wonder she broke down last night.

Darcy sighed and began to extract herself from Jane's vice-like grip, slowly sitting up and rubbing her eyes with the knuckles of her hands. She pawed for her glasses, still sleepy. Jane mumbled, and curled in on herself, which made Darcy frown. She would have to do something about that.

She finally found her glasses and slid them up her nose. She glimpsed at the clock. Five in the morning. She grimaced and sighed. They would have to start gathering their things if they wanted to be out of there by dawn. She leaned back in, shaking Jane's shoulder lightly. The scientist groaned, and rolled away from Darcy. The young woman sighed.

"Jane, we have to go."

A moan.

"Jane, we have to go."

The scientist curled up even more, hiding her face into the pillow.

"Jane. Up. Now."

The unusual tone did it and the older woman opened her eyes, sitting up slowly. Darcy sighed. If that hadn't worked, she would have had to use the Thor card and she really didn't want to make any promises to Jane. She wasn't sure how much disappointment the astrophysicist could endure. She wasn't really keen on finding out.

Jane was in official zombie mode, walking around and gathering her belongings. Darcy threw her a skeptical look, but decided to take a chance and leave her for a few moments to pack her own things.

In the hall, she ran into Camille, who was striding around with a stack of notes. The scientist stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes darting all over Darcy's face.

"How is she?"

Darcy pinched her lips, frowning.

"I don't know yet. As good as can be expected, I guess."

Camille nodded and seemed to hesitate before walking forward and wrapping Darcy into a loose hug. It lasted for a few seconds before she freed Darcy and smiled sweetly.

"Thank you for your help. Both of you. If you ever need anything, please give us a call. It'll be a pleasure."

Darcy smiled back, and tried to ignore her stinging eyes.

"Thank you. It's really appreciated."

Camille nodded, and Darcy went to her corner and wrapped everything up quickly, anxious to go back to Jane. When she walked back, the facility was starting to wake up and many people tried to stop her and talk to her about Jane and about what happened yesterday. She gave them fake smiles and weak excuses, focused on her friend. She probably got a few frowns for that but she honestly didn't care. She doubted she would see them again, and anyway, they didn't have any kind of influence over her.

When she arrived, Jane was waiting, sitting on her bed. Darcy forced herself to smile.

"Hey girl! Ready to leave?"

Jane looked up, eyes finally focused, if still sad. She nodded. They quickly exited the building, and thankfully met no one. The plane was already waiting for them. Agent Taves and the other agent were there again. Jane grimaced and stopped Darcy by grabbing for her arm. The older woman was distressed again.

"Darcy? Do you think I'll see Thor again?"

Darcy cocked her head. She wasn't going to lie.

"At some point? Yes, you'll see him again. In the next few days? I honestly don't know Jane. I'm sorry."

Jane nodded and let her go. The petite woman squared her shoulders, walking into the plane. Darcy sighed, and followed.

She gave a curt nod to the agents, and couldn't help but notice they looked like they had been through a rough patch. Taves had a bandage showing at the top of his collar, and Other Guy's hand was a mess of red lines. Darcy arched an eyebrow at them, which was only answered by a pair of blank faces. She frowned, but still to no avail.

She got the message, and decided she didn't care. It wasn't her problem if they were injured, and it certainly wasn't her place to inquire about it. She lifted her nose and went to drop herself on a seat just beside Jane, letting the scientist know she still was available for sympathy cuddles.

It took her all of ten minutes to get bored, and she was intent on not falling asleep on Jane. She looked at Other Guy, and decided to address him first, Taves second.

"Hey buddy, can you hook me up with Coulson? I have things to deal with him."

The man looked at her for a moment, a weird expression on his face, visibly pondering if he should answer. Finally, after a long, questioning silence that got the attention of even Jane, he spoke slowly.

"Agent Coulson is dead. He went down during the attack of the helicarrier."

Jane stopped breathing and Darcy froze. And desperately tried to wrap her head around it. And hoped she misunderstood.

She croaked.

"Dead?"

He gave a curt nod, before turning to his pad. Darcy struggled to breathe, and leaned on Jane. God. How was that even possible?

Coulson was the most badass motherfucker around. BAMF had been created for Coulson. She saw trained agents, assassins, and other deadly folks cower in fear before Coulson when he was having a bad day. Or craving coffee.

"How?"

Jane was rubbing circles on her back. Because she knew Coulson reminded Darcy of her Dad, who passed away a few years prior. The agent, though, didn't seem moved by Darcy's emotional reaction. He gave her an annoyed look before shrugging.

"I don't know."

Like it wasn't his business. Like it wasn't hers. Like he didn't care. Like she shouldn't.

The only thing that kept her from jumping at his throat was Jane, who was holding her down as she comforted her. It wasn't fair the scientist was so good at reading Darcy.

Coulson was dead. Fuck.

It had to be Loki. He was the only one who could have taken down Agent Phil BAMF Coulson.

Darcy was going to rip _his _throat out. Slowly. With a tea spoon. For Thor. For Jane. For Coulson.

Who was she going to banter with? To try to blackmail while knowing perfectly well he's only humoring her? To bitch at because he stole her iPod or request crazy expensive coffee, listing it as a necessity to deal with Mad Scientists?

How was she supposed to work with said Mad Scientists without being able to call Coulson?

Yeah, she did say he reminded her of her daddy.

She might have been projecting a bit. He never complained though. Darcy liked to think she was a nice, welcomed break from genius scientists and annoying coworkers. She was nothing to him and yet he always found time for her, even if to only tell her he didn't have time. She saw many youngsters that received nothing more than an unimpressed look. One of her greatest joys was watching them run away, afraid for their lives. Sadly, Coulson never allowed her to record it. Secrecy and all that jazz.

How could Coulson be dead? He was supposed to be immortal. Like an elf. Wise, quiet, and able to kick your ass all the way to Jupiter if so inclined.

Then again, elves could die if slain-yeah, she read the Silmarion-so maybe that's what happened.

Darcy frowned, and looked to Jane, who seemed as awkward as Darcy had felt the day before. Darcy nodded and let herself be pulled into a hug.

Someone would have to provide her some answers the moment she set foot wherever this plane was heading.

OOOOOOOOO

They landed inside a huge _thing. _Which flew. And looked like a giant fortress.

What the hell.

She jumped out of the plane, looking positively manic, and barged toward the single woman standing around with a white bandage covering her temple. She looked at Darcy's approach with the blank, expressionless look Darcy learned to associate with secret agents. Darcy stopped right in front of her, and leaned in until their noses were about a foot away from each other. She heard Jane's footsteps behind her, but didn't turn, afraid the agent would disappear if she let her out of her sight. She growled, leering.

"I want answers. Now."

The woman didn't twitch, taking on a calm tone of voice.

"I am aware the present situation is-"

Darcy cut her off, royally annoyed. How hard could it be for these people to give her a fucking direct answer for once! One of her friend's had died in the last few days, and no one seemed to think she deserved any notification. Or any reaction on her part.

"Alright, Agent-" she threw a quick look at the name tag, "Hill. I'm going to say this again. I want answers. Now. I don't care about your bureaucratic bullshit, or any top secret shit. I want some answers about why Coulson's dead and your still here."

That silenced Hill pretty quick. She stared at Darcy for a few moments, before darting a look at Jane over her shoulder. Finally, she addressed Jane.

"Dr. Foster, Agent Taves will escort you to a room where one of our senior agent will give you an update about Thor Odinson's situation."

Jane brightened at the mention of Thor, but looked weary at the idea of leaving Darcy alone. The younger woman gave her an encouraging jerk of her head, and Jane trailed after the agent.

Darcy turned back to Hill, eyes expectant. The agent turned around.

"This way."

Darcy arched an eyebrow, but decided to wait and see where they were leading her before complaining. The place was as much of a maze as she expected it to be. She hoped Hill wasn't leading her in here just to disappear. It would be an efficient way never to have to deal with her ever again. She managed to get lost in the two streets of Puerto Antiguo once.

After way too many twists and turns, they arrived in front of a non-descript door identical to all the others she had seen so far, and had no idea what made it special until Hill knocked.

"Director?"

Oh. She had been brought to Fury. Coulson had talked about his boss a few times, nothing big, nothing relevant, just naming him in passing. However Darcy couldn't help but wonder whether it was a good thing or not. She heard a vague reply, which Hill visibly interpreted as an invitation to enter, and she opened the door. With a calm, blank look, she beckoned Darcy inside. The younger girl didn't miss the ominous way the door closed behind her, nor the fact that Hill hadn't followed her into the room.

Said room was bare, walls a generic white. The only furniture was a desk, which in itself was as dull as a desk can be, all metal with a bunch of papers on top. All in all, the only interesting there was the other person occupying it.

The black man was bald, and had a leather eye patch over his left eye. A black leather coat had been thrown over one of the two chairs sanding in front of the desk. Very BDSM. And he was staring at her.

Like he was looking into the deep corners of her soul.

Between him and Coulson, the poor baby agents must have had nightmares for the first few months of working here.

Except Coulson wasn't around anymore. Coulson was dead. Darcy wanted to know how that happened. God help her, Fury would tell her. After a minute or two of their staring contest, during which Darcy discovered the sheer awkwardness of staring into a single eye, Fury spoke.

"Miss Lewis, it is a pleasure to meet you."

Darcy cocked her head.

"Director Fury. I heard a lot about you."

He grinned, noting her phrasing. He gesture to the last free chair, and Darcy moved hesitantly to take a seat. As she sat down, Fury spoke again.

"I am happy you accepted our invitation-"

Darcy couldn't help cutting in.

"It was an invitation? Didn't sound like one to me."

He ignored her.

"Especially since we sent you away after your internship with Dr. Foster."

Darcy waited, sensing there was more to that. Fury paused to look at her, before resuming.

"Agent Coulson, during his period with you and Dr. Foster in New Mexico, noted that you would make a fine asset to this division."

Darcy's eyebrows shot up to her hairline. She never heard that. Why would Coulson think so? She never did anything special when he was around. Fury continued, ignoring her reaction.

"And he informed me of his opinion. Agent Coulson's instincts and insight in matter of recruiting have yet to be proved flawed and I place my complete trust in his judgement."

A breath.

"Unfortunately, we have standards we tried to uphold as often as possible in the matters. A completed college degree is one of them."

Darcy couldn't help but bristle at this.

"I've been out of college for months now! Why haven't you contacted me then?"

Fury sighed, and opened his hands.

"Agent Coulson wasn't sure how you would react to an offer now that you had some time to reflect on what happened and a chance to return to civilian life."

Darcy frowned.

"So why now?"

Fury sighed.

"The situation changed."

Darcy frowned, spitting.

"Yeah Coulson's dead."

Talking about him, about how he had appreciated her, and how he wanted to hire her but held back because of how it might make her feel...it hurt. Because he was dead. And Fury, his direct superior, seemed as unaffected by it as Taves and the Other Guy. Was she the only freaking person around here that cared about Coulson? Fury cut through her musing.

"No."

Darcy's head snapped up. Fury's eye was dead serious.

"Because Coulson's still alive."

.

..

...

...

Darcy's brain shut down. It just wouldn't compute. It wasn't possible. The Other Guy said... Hill said... Well, Hill didn't say anything, but she certainly didn't deny anything either.

Coulson couldn't be alive.

Though he couldn't really be dead either.

Coulson was Schrödinger's cat.

Shut up brain. She was listening to too much Big Band Theory. What the hell was wrong with her? Fury said Coulson was alive.

Darcy didn't really thrust Fury, but at the moment he was confirming something she always thought.

Coulson couldn't be dead. Coulson was an elf. Elves are badass, and they don't die. But it still didn't explain why Fury was telling her, since Coulson's status clearly wasn't part of the public domain. She finally gathered her wit enough to look up at Fury, realizing she had been staring at her hands.

"Really?"

Fury nodded, looking patient and compassionate. It was kind of ironic the only S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who seemed to understand her were the two scariest agents in the organization.

"Yes, Miss Lewis."

She felt oddly desperate.

"He didn't die?"

Fury grimaced.

"He did die. Twice. He flat lined twice before the docs managed to stabilize him."

Darcy ignored the dying twice part and focused on the still alive part. She nodded, feeling a manic giggle bubble in her chest. She wouldn't burst out laughing in Fury's office. She took a deep, bracing, controlling breath, until she felt she could talk safely. She couldn't help the slight tremor, though.

"Why are you telling me?"

Fury stared at her for a long while, sizing her up.

"At the moment, Agent Coulson is still unconscious. The doctors are not quite sure when he'll wake up, though they are optimistic he will wake up."

Darcy nodded, happy about that but still puzzled as to why she was being told all of this. Fury seemed to catch on, and resumed after a small pause.

"However, they say that having someone Coulson appreciated to stay with him, and watch over him may help. Company apparently encourage patients to wake up."

Darcy's eyes lit up and she leaned forward.

"And, from what I can tell, from years of dealing with Coulson, is that as soon as he wakes up, he'll be brewing up Hell all over again. Coulson never bore inactivity well, and certainly won't now that the Avengers Initiative has become active. I want someone to be with him at all times to make sure he doesn't over-exert himself."

Darcy took some time to process everything.

"So you want me to keep him company while he's out and to watch over him while he heals."

Fury nodded.

"That's about it, yes."

Darcy felt she should be grateful for what she already had. And she really was. She was ecstatic Coulson was alive, and that she got to work with him. But really, there was something she needed to know.

"And after that? When he's back to full health?"

Fury smirked for a split second.

"I've been trying to convince Coulson to take up an assistant for some time now. I have a feeling he would be fine with have you in that role. Especially if you spend the next few months shadowing him."

Darcy was pretty sure she was beaming now. She loved dealing with people. That's why she took up Political Science. And more than anything, she liked dealing with exceptional people. Like Jane and Thor. And Coulson. Fury seemed satisfied by her answer, and turned to grab some papers which he handed to her.

"Here is your contract."

She smiled.

"Anything fishy in it?"

Fury smirked.

"Except the part where you aren't allowed to talk to anyone about your job and Coulson? Nothing."

"I guess that also includes Jane?"

The director nodded.

"Yes. I believe Dr. Foster will have enough to be worry about without you adding to it."

Darcy smiled a bit sadly and signed with a flourish before depositing her pen and staring at him.

"Can I see him?"

Fury smiled, and stood. He went to the door, unhooking a key hanging on the side. He threw it lightly and Darcy fumbled with it for a moment before grabbing it surely. Fury turned and exited, leaving Darcy to jog to catch up. The new employee fell in step beside him.

"Who exactly are aware of the situation?"

"You, me, and his doctor."

"So Hill…?"

"Is in the dark, and will stay there until I say otherwise."

Darcy nodded and did her best to memorize the way to wherever they were going. Fury didn't even look at her.

"There will be a private elevator that will go straight from your room to Agent Coulson's."

Darcy didn't even bother to try and hide her relieved sigh. Now she only had to remember the way to her room. It would be easier to ask directions there than the room of a dead guy.

After a good while of walking, they arrived at a door in a hallway filled with storage units. Not a place anyone would look twice, if they had no business to. Fury entered and gestured for her to follow him inside. She walked a bit gingerly, apprehensive as to what she would find.

A doctor was in the room, talking to Fury in low tones. She was a middle-aged Asian woman with a kind face and salt and pepper hair. Fury nodded at something she said before gesturing toward Darcy.

"This is Darcy Lewis, the one who'll be attending to Coulson. I expect her to be allowed to be present at any time."

The woman nodded and smiled kindly at Darcy. The younger woman was relieved all S.H.I.E.L.D.'s personnel weren't robots. She answered quickly, while Fury finished the introduction.

"Miss Lewis, this is Doctor Nguyen. She is Agent Coulson's attending physician. Feel free to call upon her at any time if you feel something is wrong."

Darcy nodded and looked toward the bed. Curtains were drawn, despite it being a private room. Doctor Nguyen gave an encouraging jerk of the head, and Darcy slowly walked to the back of the room. She slid through the curtains, eyes fixed on its occupant.

Coulson, who was never really tanned to begin with, was as white as the bed sheets. Out of his usual crisp, dark suit, he looked vulnerable and younger. She walked silently, and unconsciously sat on the chair. Her eyes never left his face, examining it.

He had dark rings under his eyes, which wasn't anything knew, except that they were even more apparent now in contrast with his almost translucent skin. She almost wanted to reach out and make sure he wasn't a ghost. Surely no one could be this white and still be alive.

She heard herself croak.

"What happened?"

Nguyen was the one to answer. She appeared, as cautious about unnecessary noises as Darcy had been. She looked a bit sad, looking at Coulson. Darcy was as well. Coulson would hate to know anyone saw him so weak. It would kill him. Coulson lived on being perfectly professional and always ready for action.

"He was stabbed in the chest."

The doctor leaned forward, and delicately lowered the bedspread, revealing Coulson's chest and the huge bandage wrapped around it. Darcy chewed her bottom lip, trying to keep herself from imagining the wound.

"Who did it?"

This time it was Fury who answered.

"Loki, when he escaped."

Darcy nodded. She expected as much. She didn't talk further and, after a while, she heard Fury and Dr. Nguyen exit the room. She sighed and leaned forward, taking her head in her hands.

"I hate you Coulson. You're not allowed to make me relive the death of my father. You're not allowed to die. Ever. You're going to live forever, because of you don't, I'll go drag you back from the dead by the ear. Might as well never go, right? Anyway, you're an elf. Elves don't die. So you can't die."

She chuckled, realizing she didn't make much sense. She hoped he couldn't hear her at the moment, but knew nonetheless it was a possibility.

"It was pretty boring, after everything. You know, being a civilian again. Going to school. Hanging out with friends. Getting drunk. The only thing I could think about was how Jane would rattle the periodic table when she got tipsy, and all your rants about kids nowadays being irresponsible."

She sighed, and leaned forward to pat his shoulder.

"I never really fit in. I worked hard too. So going back, after everything, it was hard. And now Fury offered me a job. I'm going to make sure you don't kill yourself once we are sure Loki won't finish the job."

Darcy looked around for inspiration. She wasn't used to making small talk with an unconscious person.

"It worked. The Avengers. They defeated the aliens, and took down a good part of Manhattan with them. Now everybody is either going on and on about them being their saviors or vile fiend who shouldn't interfere with the country's problem. Idiots."

She chuckled again.

"I feel stupid. Do I look stupid? No. Don't answer that. I won't like the answer. You better be grateful when you wake up Coulson, because I'm totally out of my element right now. Like, on the other side of the planet from my element."

She looked around one more time and finally saw a book lying on the bedside table. She picked it up, knowing Fury probably left it there. She laughed when she saw the title.

"Harry Potter, really?"

Of course she didn't get an answer and she chuckled as she opened the first page.

"I believe in heroes all right. Well, let's do this. Chapter one, The Boy Who Lived..."

And as she read on, she felt herself relax, melting her voice around the familiar words.

She could do this.


	3. Chapter 3

Darcy had been tending to Coulson for nearly three weeks now. She spent all day down in his room and slept just over him in a small room, bare except for a shelf and a small cot. Coulson's room, on the other hand, was now equipped with the most comfortable couch Darcy had ever occupied in her life and an incredibly fast internet connection with a computer she was pretty sure wouldn't be on the market for half a decade. And a TV with more channels than Darcy even knew existed. As far as Darcy was concerned, she was in heaven.

She usually spent about half the day reading to him. She went through the Harry Potter books rather quickly. After them, she took on the Percy Jackson series, keen on keeping the hero aspect. She had read the books a while back and she was pretty sure Coulson would like them.

She followed those up with the Hunger Games, despite not knowing much about them herself. Jane had read them once and recommended them to Darcy, but the younger woman never got around reading them. Darcy had felt a slight pang when she asked for them, though. She hadn't seen or heard from Jane ever since she got here, being tightly monitored by Fury. She wasn't allowed to write to Jane and all her other contact had to be devoid of any information as to what she was doing.

She simply hoped the astrophysicist wouldn't take the radio silence too much to heart.

She also decided she wouldn't delve on the fact she was reading teenage literature to a man twice her age. However, while she did, she tried to imagine what he would say if he was awake with her.

The rest of the time, when her throat was getting sore and she needed a break, she'd open the TV to some show or another, laughing and commenting about it to him. She remembered Coulson's love of bad reality shows, and would sometimes put them on, maligning him all the while for his bad taste.

Or sometimes she would play on the computer. In these times, she would sit right next to him, keeping a hand on his arm or his leg at all times. Dr. Nguyen had told her Coulson's mind might be awake and feeling a presence with him would help him. Which meant Darcy did her best to cut her time away from him to the minimum, sleeping no more than 6 hours a night, usually four, taking on having a few naps on the couch instead.

There had been no sign indicating Coulson would wake up anytime soon, but according to the doctor and the research Darcy did, it wasn't a confirmation he couldn't wake up anytime soon. In fact, he was almost more likely to wake up when there were no positive signs going toward it.

So she stayed by his side, waiting. Fury would come down once in a while to talk with Coulson. Darcy would put in her ear buds and politely ignore them until she saw Fury exit by the corner of her eye.

Dr. Nguyen came at least once a day, to check Coulson's vitals, and make sure he was as healthy as could possibly be expected. She didn't linger, not since the first time after she explained Coulson's condition.

Darcy was droning on, just finishing the first book of the trilogy, when she saw movement at the corner of her eye. She raised her head, expecting to see Fury or Nguyen, doing their ninja trick. But there was no one there. She frowned, until she noticed Coulson's left hand. It was flexing slightly. Darcy straigthened, staring at it for a while.

"Coulson?"

The hand flexed again.

"Coulson, can you hear me?"

Another flex.

"Alright, flew you index twice for yes, and well, do what you want for no."

And miracle, his index finger flexed twice. Darcy forced herself to cut her happy giggle short, not sure in which mood the agent would be.

"I'm going to call your doctor now, okay?"

The finger twitched twice again. Darcy pushed the call button, and went back to watching Coulson.

"Can you do anything else? Open your eyes, move your feet? Flex once for no."

The finger moved once, and Darcy slowly put a reassuring hand on his arm.

"It's okay, Coulson, everything is going to be fine. You'll be back to normal in no time."

He didn't move again, but there wasn't any appropriate response to this that passed through yes or no. The door opened, and Dr. Nguyen entered, looking concerned.

"What's the matter?"

Darcy beamed at her, squeezing Coulson's arm once.

"He's awake."

The small woman sent a sceptical look to the lying agent.

"He is?"

Darcy rolled her eyes. She wasn't stupid enough to mistake a comatose person who hadn't moved in a week for someone who was awake.

"Alright Coulson, you have to show the lovely lady I'm not mad."

She could almost see him hesitate, considering leaving her hanging, but finally, deliberately, he moved his hand again. Nguyen was at his side in a second, moving so fast Darcy almost didn't see it.

"When did it happen."

Darcy checked her watch, uselessly since she didn't note the hour, and answered, hesitantly.

"About three minutes?"

The doctor nodded, checking the agent's pulse and his breathing. Darcy saw his hand tighten in a fist, and she rubbed his forearm, trying to be reassuring.

"Has he done anything else?"

Darcy shook her head.

"He said he couldn't."

The doctor paused to look at her.

"Said?"

Darcy shrugged.

"One flex no, two flexes yes."

The doctor raised her eyebrow, but spoke nonetheless.

"Agent Coulson? Can you hear me?"

Two flexes.

"I am Dr. Nguyen. Now I need you to tell me if you can see anything right now."

She opened his left eye, and waited. Two flexes. Darcy grinned, and leaned forward until she was pretty sure she was in his line of sight.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, G-Man."

The doctor, took out a syringe.

"I'm going put you under Agent Coulson, you need to rest. Do not worry, the rest of your bodily functions will come back with time."

He had barely time two give two flexes before she injected the sedative, and he went lax under Darcy's fingers. She smiled, and looked to the doctor.

"You should tell Fury."

The Asian woman nodded, and gathered her things.

"I will. Call me when he wakes up, or if anything starts beeping in a strange way."

Darcy nodded, and the other woman was gone.

OOOOOOOOO

Coulson's recovery was slow. A few days after his initial movement, and after a few yes-no conversations, he gained the use of his other hand, which didn't change anything except that it lightened his mood considerably that he was really improving and that it wasn't just Darcy and his doctor being reassuring. Darcy rolled her eyes at this, even though he couldn't see her, and scolded him for being a skeptical git.

She got the 'don't trust anyone secret agent' thing, but there was a point in life where you had to trust people, especially if those people are responsible for keeping you alive. Fury had come by a few times and told Darcy they should all be grateful Coulson regained the use of his hands and not his feet. Darcy simply nodded, and tried not to imagine the possibility of a blind, lost, and supposedly dead Coulson trudging through the headquarters.

A week after, when Darcy was once more reading to him, after Coulson assured her he liked being read to, that it helped with the boredom, he shifted. She looked briefly, to see if he was trying to tell her anything with his hands, but they stayed still. She arched an eyebrow, but went back to the story.

"'Arcy…"

She jumped, and stared at him.

" 'Arcy."

She beamed once more.

"Yeah, I'm here. What do you want?"

"Wa'er."

She jumped to get the glass, and slowly brought the straw to his lips. He latched on in greedily, drinking for a few moments. Finally, he pulled back.

"Thanks."

"Anytime, sir."

He frowned. She resisted the urge to hug him. It was the first time he demonstrated any kind of emotion since he woke up. Not that he was that transparent usually, but it was by choice, not because he wasn't able to control the muscles of his face. Then he rasped.

"Phil."

She frowned too, cocking her head.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Took care." A deep breathe. "A month." Another rasping breathe. "Call Phil."

Darcy opened and closed her mouth a few times.

"You want me to call you Phil?"

He nodded. She beamed at him.

"I can do that. Now stop talking, or you'll hurt you throat."

She went back to her book, noting the small smile that was tugging at the corner of Phil's mouth. It was her job to keep him entertained.

OOOOOOOO

"You look like hell."

Phil, being himself, against all medical orders, forced himself to talk as much as he could, so five days after, he had regained his vocal capacities, and earned himself a very, very irritated throat. Nguyen had given him a stern look he ignored, which she then transferred to Darcy. The young woman protested. It wasn't as if she could do anything. She doubted gagging him would be much of a use.

Phil had, after that, in his quietest and blandest voice, asked Nguyen to stop maligning his keeper. Darcy would cherish the look on the doctor's face for a long time. She thanked Phil with a big smile she knew he could hear in her voice. He answered quietly that he should be thanking her.

The point was she was browsing the internet when Coulson spoke. She turned, surprised, to see him watching her with tired, blood-shot eyes. She smiled and rolled her eyes at the same time, rolling her chair until she was beside his head.

"Agent Coulson, you are a true charmer."

His mouth twitched.

"Miss Lewis, I do believe you look exhausted. Would you by any chance consider taking a nap?"

She rolled her eyes again.

"So that you can bust out and go running around the carrier? I think not. How many fingers do you see?"

She raised four. He gave her a stern look, but answered nonetheless.

"Four."

She patted his head, earning herself an indignant hiss.

"Good Boy."

He sighed, and plopped back on his pillows. Darcy frowned.

"Anything you want to watch?"

He shook his head.

"I'll sleep now, Darcy, and you should do the same."

Darcy nodded, and moved to the couch, knowing he would give her hell if she didn't at least rest her eyes for a while.

Just when she was about to doze off, she heard a shaking breath coming from the bed, and what could be interpreted as a sob. She considered going to him, she really was almost up, but she decided he probably wouldn't want that. He wouldn't want her to acknowledge she heard him. He needed to tell himself she didn't believe him to be weak.

Not that she did. As far as she was concerned, Phil Coulson was the toughest bastard on Earth, but she doubted it would do him much good for her to tell him that. So she tightened the small blanket around herself, and allowed him the privacy to cry.

OOOOOOOO

"Hey, Elrond?"

Phil frowned to his tablet, before slowly raising his eyes to meet hers.

"Are you talking to me?"

Darcy smiled, and jumped on the bed, bouncing on the mattress.

"Yep."

He arched an eyebrow, demanding clarifications on how he managed to gain this nickname.

"Well, you're so totally an elf!"

His two eyebrows shut up to his airline, and he drawled, puzzled.

"I am?"

She rolled her eyes, sitting cross legged at the foot of his bed.

"Of course you are. I mean, everybody know you're old, but no one knows how old. You love being mysterious, and you always know more than us mere mortal. You're wiser than us. You kick ass. And you just won't die."

He was smiling now, amused.

"And that makes me an elf?"

"Yes. Elves don't die. So you can't die."

She leaned forward.

"Ever."

He gave her a fond look, before returning back to his pad, which she had been told held a report of what he missed during his convalescence. He talked without looking away again.

"I would have thought Fury would be Elrond, being the master of this place."

Darcy grinned, happy Phil was playing along.

"Nah, Fury's Galadriel. He's older, you never know what he's thinking, he's scary and you're not really sure you like him."

Phil snorted, still looking at his pad.

"I'm sure he would be enraptured by the comparison."

Darcy shrugged.

"Eh, Galadriel kick ass. And he already thinks I'm insane, anyway."

"It's reassuring he posted a mad person to take care of me."

She gave him a shrewd look.

"Look me in the eyes, and tell me a perfectly sane person would have accepted this job."

He simply laughed.

OOOOOOOOO

Darcy had wondered when someone else would discover Coulson was still alive. The agent had nearly recovered now; he could even move his legs, even though they were still too weak for him to walk on them.

They were inside an intelligence agency. Surely someone would notice something is amiss. But nearly two months had passed since the invasion, and still no one outside of her, Fury and Nguyen seemed to be aware Coulson wasn't as dead as everyone was lead to believe.

On hindsight, she should have known. Of course the first ones to figure it out would be the Avengers.

It had been a quiet morning. Phil had finished his physical therapy, washed, and had been watching TV ever since, intent on catching up with everything he missed. Darcy alternated between making fun of him, again, for his taste in shows, which was far more gratifying when he was awake and watching music videos on YouTube. This of course lead Phil to make fun of her taste in music.

She was careful how she pushed. Coulson was still pretty weak, and he hated it, so she always made sure to distract him from his limitations, knowing it wouldn't do him any good to remember what he couldn't yet do.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Both of them raised their heads, and looked at each other. Neither Nguyen nor Fury knocked, preferring to scare the shit out of Darcy as often as they could. The young woman slowly rose to her feet, and walked to the door, opening it gingerly.

On the other side stood a short man with spiky dirty blond hair, and the most amazing arms and shoulders Darcy had ever seen. She took a deep bracing breath.

Hawkeye. She decided to feign innocence.

"What can I do for you, sir?"

He frowned at her, eyes haunted and angry. She forced herself to stay still, and not to duck for cover. She hadn't done anything. She had no reason to be afraid of him. Despite of knowing this, she couldn't help shivering under the intensity of the stare. He looked like he was going to kill her simply for standing in his way.

"I want to go in."

His voice was rough, like he hadn't used it in a long time.

"I'm afraid you can't, sir."

He sneered.

"I'm going to see Coulson, kid. Just let me in."

Darcy swallowed, but straightened, doing her best to look the guy in the eyes.

"I'm sorry sir, but only authorized personnel may enter. You need to come back with a permission form signed by Fury."

Suddenly, a red-headed woman appeared just beside Hawkeye's shoulder. Darcy barely managed to restrain a squeal. The woman was at least as menacing as the man, her expressionless face promising a lot of suffering and no regrets at all. Darcy felt like a lamb thrown to the wolves. She reached to the doorway for support. The man leaned forward slightly.

"Director Fury made us believe for two months that Coulson was dead. I am going in."

Darcy was about to protest, until she heard a quiet voice inside.

"It's alright, Darcy."

She pinched her lips together and stepped back to let Hawkeye and the woman in. The red-head gave her another weighted look, indicating she was still considering elimination. They probably believed she was Fury's accomplice.

As if she could have told anyone, even if she had wanted. She hadn't seen anybody since she arrived here, always travelling between her room and Phil's. She hadn't even seen Jane, even if she knew the scientist had come on board to the carrier a couple of times since she went on baby sitting duty. She saw Hawkeye drop himself into the chair beside Phil's bed, the woman standing just behind him. Phil shot a calming look to Darcy, before speaking to them.

"Clint, Natasha."

Neither of them answered, but the woman-Natasha- went to curl herself at the foot of the bed, curving a hand around Phil's ankle. Darcy frowned at the invasion of what had become _her _spot. She stayed by the door, but kept watching them. She allowed Fury his privacy because he was is boss. Neither of these people had any influence over her, as far as she knew. And she didn't trust them. She didn't trust their eyes. Hawkeye sighed.

"I'm sorry."

Phil's eyes widened in alarm, and he tried to straighten, with a wince that Natasha caught, but that seemed to escape to the other man. Some Hawkeye. The red head tightened her hold on the ankle, warning Phil to take it easy. The older agent frowned.

"Whatever for?"

The archer's shoulder's tightened, and Darcy could imagine his mouth thin.

"For this. For the helicarrier, and the attack, and you. I'm sorry."

Phil sighed.

"It wasn't your fault Clint."

The man's head snapped up, and from her point of view, Darcy could see his jaw was so tense she was surprised he wasn't breaking any teeth.

"The hell it was. I did it. I lead them. If- If I had been stronger it- It wouldn't have happened."

He slumped back down, taking her head into his shaking hands.

"They would still be alive."

"No they wouldn't."

Phil' expression was stern, but Darcy could see the strain. She frowned.

"Loki would have found someone else. You weren't weak, Clint. I know you fought. There are just some things a human can't defeat."

Clint was hissing at that point.

"I should be better than this."

Phil frowned.

"Agent Barton. You are one of our best assets. But you remain human. And it is as much a strength as it is a weakness."

Clint bellowed.

"You were dead!"

Phil winced, which Natasha and Barton seemed to think was because of the shout, but Darcy could see he was started to waver. She made to move, but he stopped her with a look. Dammit.

"I wasn't."

Darcy felt that mentioning he did flat line twice wasn't the best idea. It wouldn't help anyone. Barton was up now, and pacing.

"You were as good as dead! For two months, you were stuck here, because of me, when I was able to run around. I should be in jail. I should be dead!"

Natasha hissed, and Phil snapped.

"No."

Clint paused, recognizing this tone for what it was: a signal that he was in trouble.

"I was stuck here because I decided to go face a demi-god alone, with an experimental weapon. It is my fault. I would have done the same if someone else had broken him out. I am glad to be alive, but I wouldn't have regretted death. I died for a good reason, and you had nothing to do with it. And you shouldn't be imprisoned for something that happened when you were under mind-control."

Phil leaned forward, ignoring the pain Darcy knew it caused him.

"And if you ever say you should be dead, I will make sure you regret it. We lost enough people without adding you to the lot."

Clint was shaking.

"You don't understand."

Enough was enough. Phil was a stupid argument away from collapsing, and Darcy had enough of this. She snapped.

"Agent Barton. A word."

He whipped around, glaring at her. She wasn't going to run away. No matter how much she wanted to. She wasn't going to let him exhaust Phil. He glared for a few moments, before relenting, and following her out of the room.

Once she closed the door, he snapped.

"What?"

She turned around, facing him.

"Look, Agent Barton, I understand you are going through a difficult-"

He sneered.

"Don't pretend you understand, kid. You know nothing about these things."

Darcy bristled.

"No, I don't. I'm a stupid kid who came from a comfortable childhood, had loving parents, and was perfectly normal. But it doesn't mean I can't take care of Coulson."

Barton leaned forward.

"Fury chose you because he knew you were irrelevant, and that no one would miss you."

Darcy ignored the way the words stung hard and sounded true. She straightened.

"This isn't about me, Agent Barton. This is about Coulson. He's still recovering, barely at the point where he can talk as it is.."

He shouted, face red.

"Because of me!"

She cried just as strong in return.

"I don't care!"

He bared his teeth, looking about to lung for her throat, but she wasn't having it.

"I don't give a damn if this is your fault or not. I don't give a fucking damn about your self-pity fest. The only thing I care about is Coulson, and making sure he gets better."

Barton was sneering, but interested despite himself.

"He can barely stay awake more than six hours by day, and moving _anything _hurts like hell. He's already depressed because he doesn't feel he's recuperating fast enough."

She moved forward, nearly nose to nose to him.

"I can barely keep him from exhausting himself to death. I really don't need a selfish bastard coming in and drag him down with him."

Barton recoiled liked he had been slapped.

"Selfish bastard?"

She sneered.

"Yes, you idiot. If you had paid any attention to Coulson, to anything other than your fucking self, you would have noticed how tired he is, how he winces all the time because he was hurting. But you didn't, because you don't care. The only thing you want is a fresh ear to gripe to."

Barton paled, and took a step back, face blank. Darcy wasn't done. She continued on a more subdued tone, glaring at him all the same.

"Now, if you would, Agent Barton, I'm going to ask you to leave and to stay away from here. Don't come back until you've aged enough to pay attention to something other than yourself and are able to be the friend he needs you to be at the moment."

Darcy couldn't understand the flashes of emotions going through Barton's eyes, while his face remained empty. She honestly didn't try very hard. She couldn't wait for him to disappear. He sneered one last time.

"This isn't your world, kid. Don't kid yourself. As soon as you're done being Phil's bodyguard, they'll throw you out."

He gave her a once over, before turning around walking away.

"They have no reason to keep someone like you."

Darcy had barely the time to wonder what he meant by that until she was whirled around tackled to the wall. All the air was forced from her lungs, and a forearm was pressed to her trachea.

The red haired woman was looking at her with ice cold blue eyes. If she could have, she would have swallowed.

'I'm going to die now' was the only thing she could think, staring into this unrelenting face. She doubted anyone would find her body. She didn't look away though. She didn't with Barton, she wouldn't with his companion either. Her father always said if you can't look people in the eye, you aren't respecting yourself.

The woman leaned in, whispering.

"If you ever, ever talk to Clint like that, if you hurt him again, I will teach you why they call me Black Widow."

Darcy did her best to talk with the pressing on her throat.

"I won't if he doesn't hurt Phil. Don't you care about him too?"

She pursed her lips and pressed harder. Darcy gasped.

"Silly child, this doesn't concern you. It's between me, Clint and Coulson."

Darcy breathed.

"I don't care how far back you three go: I won't let Barton hurt Coulson. I don't care how he beats himself up for this. It won't help anyone if he worsens the situation. He'll only blame himself more."

Natasha's grip loosed a bit and Darcy took the opportunity to take a huge gulp of air. The Black Widow glared at her for a few more moments before letting her go altogether. Darcy slumped on the floor, panting. The woman gave her one last hard look.

"Be careful, Darcy Lewis."

Darcy shivered. She wasn't even aware four words could be so threatening. After a few minutes, she found the strength to stand up again and went back inside the room. Coulson looked up when she entered, and frowned, obviously seeing something wrong. Darcy doubted the mark of Natasha's arm would appear so soon, so her expression must be telling.

"Darcy, is everything alright?"

She smiled reassuringly at him.

"Yeah, everything's fine. The Widow's frightening, it's all."

She wasn't too keen on admitting she almost choked her. Phil would be able to tell from the bruise, anyway, tomorrow. His frown deepened.

"Did sh-"

Darcy cut him.

"Don't worry, they'll be back, they simply need a bit of time to gather their thoughts."

Phil glared at her, but softened none the less.

"Thank you."

She spared him brief look while she settled in her computer chair once more.

"For defending me."

She shrugged.

"Couldn't let him undo all my hard work."

Phil pursed his lips.

"We need to have this talk, though."

Darcy gave him a hard look.

"It can wait until you're in better shape."

He nodded, knowing she wouldn't budge on this. He stared at her for a few moments, until she asked him what was wrong.

"Darcy, both Agent Barton and Agent Romanov are very hardened, possessive, untrusting people. They won't take kindly to you meddling in what they consider to be their business."

Darcy nodded, because yes, thanks, she got that already.

"Please, tell me if they do anything untoward or menacing."

Darcy nodded.

"I will."

He nodded, and settled into his pillows to sleep.

OOOOOOOOOO

The day after the two agent's visit, Coulson and Darcy were eating lunch, when suddenly the door burst open. They both jumped, Coulson going for his gun that wasn't there, and Darcy preparing to throw her knife at the intruder.

The man was about Coulson's age, with dark hair going in every direction. He was wearing expensive pants in smooth, shiny grey fabric and a dirty white wife beater. A strange goatee was adorning his face, and Darcy stared at him. He, on the other hand, was simply looking at Phil with eyes that managed to be at the same time satisfied, surprised, happy and angry.

Phil relaxed slowly.

"Mister Stark."

"You're alive."

Coulson rolled his eyes.

"Obviously."

Darcy was just computing the fact that she was seeing Tony Stark. Coulson didn't seem impressed, however.

"You're alive."

"You already mentioned that."

Stark cocked his head to the side.

"You're coming to live at the tower."

Both of Coulson's eyebrows jumped to his hairline, and Darcy choked. They spoke simultaneously.

"What?"

He waved a dismissive hand.

"Pepper would kill me if I let you stay here like a prisoner. And anyway, it'll serve Fury right for lying to us like that. You should have seen Cap's face. The man who makes Captain America look like that deserves punishment. Gather your things. You're leaving tomorrow."

Coulson pursed his lips.

"Mister Stark, I don't-"

"Tut tut, no discussion. I can make sure you're declared medically incompetent and name Pepper your guardian. She would be thrilled. So tomorrow, you're moving to the tower where the best doctors money can buy will threat you. That way, you can get a change of scenery and Pepper and the two assassins will stop glaring at me."

He looked around, and pursed his lips in disgust at the bareness of the walls, before looking back at them.

"Bring the cute nurse as well. I want her to give me sponge baths too."

He turned, and was about to walk out, before he looked over his shoulder. His voice was slightly strangled.

"I think I should say from Pepper, and Cap, and everyone else, w-they're glad you're not dead."

And he walked out for real this time.

Darcy watched him exit with wide eyes.

"Is he for real?"

"Sadly, yes."

"We're going to live in Stark Tower."

"Apparently."

"You're not going to protest?"

"Arguing with Pepper, Stark, Barton and Natasha at the same time would be far more trouble than it's worth."

Darcy nodded. And froze.

"I'm not going to have to give him sponge bath, right?"

"Absolutely not."


	4. Chapter 4

Later that day, Fury came in to talk to Coulson. For the first time since they arrived, he asked Darcy to attend to the discussion as well. The director looked at the both of them before sighing.

"Stark has made a huge deal out of this. I am obligated to release you."

He paused, and sighed again.

"That is, if you accept. Even Tony Stark can't force you to move if you don't want to."

Coulson looked at Darcy, and asked her with his eyes. Darcy pondered her options. She could stay here, where she was getting bored, Phil or no Phil, but relatively isolated and safe. Or she should go to the tower with Tony Stark, and possibly Romanov and Barton. So not really safe. But entertained. She looked at Phil, and saw what he tried to hide. He wanted to get out. She smiled at him.

"We'll go."

Fury nodded.

"I'll inform Dr. Nguyen, and have the appropriate paperwork drawn up with instructions for care."

He made to leave before changing his mind. He came back to the foot of the bed, pressing his hand to Phil's ankle, the same place Natasha did. Maybe it was a spy thing. Everything was dangerous to touch except the ankle. The ankle is safe.

She smiled a bit, and bit it down when Coulson shot her a curious look. Fury stared directly to Coulson.

"I am ordering you to heal. No overexertion, no stupid moves. You mend, and you come back here."

Coulson nodded.

"I will boss."

Fury turned to leave, pausing to look Darcy straight in the eyes.

"Take care of him. Be careful."

Be careful was fast becoming Darcy's most hated sentence. She nodded. She was getting tired of being threatened all the time.

"Nick."

They turned to Coulson, who was glaring at Fury.

"I'd appreciate if you would stop threatening my assistant."

Darcy warmed up and beamed at him, while Fury nodded tersely and exited for good. Darcy skipped to the bed and gave Phil the tightest hug she could without upsetting his injury.

The agent patted her back awkwardly, as he was wont to do. Darcy found it hilarious, but refrained for mentioning it, afraid Phil would simply forbid hugs in retaliation.

She missed hugs. Phil was great, but physical contact wasn't his forte. She plopped down on the bed.

"So. Stark Tower."

Phil nodded, looking thoughtful.

"Yes. Darcy, could you promise me something?"

She cocked her head.

"Probably, what's the matter?"

"If Stark gets too insufferable, you will tase him for me?"

Darcy threw her had back and laughed hysterically. She then leaned forward to pat his shoulder.

"Don't worry, boss. It'll be my pleasure."

She sobered for a second before smirking.

"You know, I could continue that thought. I could be the girl who tased the Avengers! I already knocked Thor down, so I-"

"You will do no such thing."

Darcy tried to glare at Coulson for stealing her fun, but she ended up dissolving in giggles on the bed. His unimpressed look was just too priceless. She prided herself on being one of the very, very few people who could face it and not cower in fear.

Coulson was very proud of his unimpressed look.

OOOOOOOOO

Darcy was standing in the hall of the Tower, doing a very life like impersonation of a gold fish. A medical team was responsible for bringing Coulson in, so she had been left to her own devices to get to the tower, and now that she was there, she had no idea what she was supposed to do. Was she supposed to go to the front desk? Would they be aware of her arrival?

She wasn't close to Tony Stark, but she was pretty sure she wasn't one of his top priorities, possible sponge bath or not. Darcy decided to go to the front desk anyway. The woman gave her a friendly smile. Darcy leaned over the counter, searching for her words.

"Hmm, Darcy Lewis? Have anything for me?"

She frowned, but went to look on her computer. After a few seconds, she looked back up, apologetic.

"I'm sorry, Miss, I've got not-"

"Miss Lewis?"

She whirled around, relief flooding through her. A tall red head-thankfully not Natasha-was walking toward her. Drop dead gorgeous, because her world was apparently one populated by women specifically designed to make her feel bad about herself.

She smiled herself, pushing away from the desk.

"Yep, that's me!"

The woman smiled at her, warm and nice. God, whoever that was, she'd earn a fortune as a model.

"I'm Virginia Potts, I work for and with Mister Stark. Phil texted me to make sure you were taken care of. I'm sorry Mister Stark didn't think to..."

She gestured to the desk with an apologetic face.

"He gets distracted sometimes."

Darcy shrugged and smiled, grabbing her bag.

"It's alright. The important is that everything's sorted now."

She paused.

"Everything's sorted right?"

Virginia sighed.

"Yes, Miss Lewis. Everything is fine. Shall we?"

She indicated one of the elevators. Darcy nodded and followed her, struggling for something to say.

"Thanks, Miss Potts. Please, call me Darcy. Miss Lewis is just weird. Except for people who I don't want to call me Darcy. Like Fury."

Virginia giggled, clasping her hand on her mouth like the sound escaped by itself against her will. Darcy smiled, biting her lip slightly.

"Alright, Darcy. Please call me Pepper."

Darcy frowned, trying to puzzle this one out.

"Pepper? From… Virginia?"

Pepper shrugged.

"I don't really remember where I got that one from. It just stuck."

Darcy shrugged.

"Well, if you get to be Pepper, I want to be Cayenne."

Once again, Pepper giggled against her will. By that time, they were in the elevator and climbing. Pepper took a deep breath.

"Alright, Darcy, I feel I have to warn you. I know you've been through a few weird incidents recently, and I've been told about Norse Gods and Coulson sitting. But Tony is a different category of weird, and I'm considering creating one all for him."

She sighed again, and Darcy was pretty sure she would rubbing her eyes, or banging her head against the wall, if she wasn't afraid to ruin her make-up.

"And he lately decided to adopt another fellow _scientist _who is now bunking here."

Darcy stuffed her hands in her pockets.

"And that is bad?"

Pepper shook her head.

"No, Dr. Banner is a great man. It's just... Tony is not used to people... Keeping up with him. He's still hasn't come down from the high, and he's all over the place as a result."

Darcy bit her lip, and frowned around the elevator.

"When you say all over the place?"

Pepper gave her a pitying look.

"All. Over. The place."

Darcy shivered. And raised her shoulders to her ears. Pepper smiled, and patted her shoulder.

"JARVIS can be mellowed with picture of cute kittens. He especially like Siamese."

Darcy frowned. Coulson told her about JARVIS being an AI running the house. As far as Darcy was concerned, AI's weren't really supposed to like things.

"Kittens?"

Pepper grinned.

"I think it's mostly because Tony forbids him to look for them anymore."

Darcy stared at Pepper for a long moment.

"This is insane."

Pepper smiled at her kindly.

"I'd like to say you get used to it, but, honestly, you don't. At least they're cute."

The doors opened, and Pepper exited. Darcy was still frozen.

"So I have to enjoy living in this mad house because they're cute?"

A disheveled head appeared in her face.

"Nope. You'll enjoy living here because I am the most incredible human in the world!"

She heard Pepper sigh behind Stark.

"When was the last time you slept?"

Stark frowned, actually considering the question for a moment, before turning dramatically, spreading his arms open.

"Tuesday!"

Pepper gave him a stern look.

"Tuesday was three days ago."

Tony arched an eyebrow, looking perfectly fine with the notion.

"Three days ago, than."

He whirled back around., facing Darcy once again.

"Anyway, Darlene-"

The young woman interrupted him, arching an eyebrow.

"Darcy."

He waved a dismissive hand.

"Darcy. It's a pleasure to have you here, and you are very welcome."

She raised the other eyebrow.

"If you are so thrilled, why didn't you notify the front desk of my arrival?"

He frowned again.

"I didn't? My god. I was busy."

Darcy pursed her lips.

"Busy? You invited me yesterday!"

Tony shrugged.

"Yeah, I was busy! Bruce, tell her we were busy!"

He turned around, and frowned.

"Pepper? Where's Bruce?"

Pepper looked up from the phone she had just fished out of her pocket.

"How I am supposed to know? Probably in the lab? Where he is most of the time, when not sleeping or eating, and even than..."

She went back to her phone. Stark gazed at her for a moment.

"You are no use at all."

Darcy hit him on the back of the head.

"Ow."

"Show some respect."

He stared at her for a moment.

"You hit me."

"No shit, Sherlock."

"I like you."

"You're weird."

He extended his hand.

"Tony Stark."

She shook it.

"Darcy Lewis."

On her left, she saw a door open, and a man walked into the room, nose buried into a stack of paper.

"Tony, there's something I need you to look at for me."

His voice trailed off when he finally looked up. He clearly didn't expect so many people to be in the room. Tony beamed, and skipped over to him.

"Bruce, come on, let's get you introduced to our newest housemate."

He bodily dragged the doctor to Darcy. The young woman awkwardly stuck her hand out again. Which the doctor shook just as awkwardly.

"Dr. Banner, it's an honor."

He twitched a bit.

"I- Don't know you."

She shrugged it off, but honestly, was anyone aware she was coming?

"No one does, don't worry about it."

He looked around, and shrugged.

"Well, if you're around here, you should be worthy to know."

Alright. She admitted it. That really, really felt good. That doctor? Favorite person in the place. She also beamed at him, which seemed to surprise him. Hm, maybe she wasn't the only one not getting a lot of love lately.

"I'm Darcy Lewis. And I'm around here to take care of Phil."

Banner gave her a quick, fleeting grin.

"If you need any help, I'm always available."

Stark popped in.

"No you're not! You've got to help me!"

Pepper cried indignantly.

"Tony! Bruce is not your property!"

A British accented voice rung through the intercom.

"Sir? Coulson's transfer has been completed, and he would like to see Miss Lewis."

Tony sighed.

"Well, JARVIS, show her the way."

Lights embedded in the floor came to life, designating the path to what Darcy hoped was Coulson's room. Tony dismissed her with a lax hand, and a slow drawl.

"Go on, Cayenne, go give the Agent a sponge bath."

Darcy stuck her tongue at him, and skipped down the hallway. Well, now she was warned. Tony was watching her. She felt the Cayenne thing would stick. She heard a chuckle, and Bruce's quiet voice.

"God help us, she's your spiritual little sister."

Pepper answered.

"Thankfully, she is a little less emotionally constipated."

"Hey!"

Darcy slipped into Phil's room. The Agent was seated on his bed, looking around the room.

"Hey boss!"

He looked slightly relieved at seeing her.

"Darcy. I wasn't sure Pepper got my message."

Darcy smiled, and plopped down beside his bed, resuming her usual position.

"She did. And she introduced me to the rest of the household."

Coulson smiled, probably reading something into her eyes. Which was highly probable. Coulson was a mind reader. Coulson could get you the name of the pet you had in first grade by looking at the vein in your neck. At least, that's what he would want you to think. Darcy had seen him study personnel files in his free time, and he was a pro at reading people. He told her it cultivated the mystery. In a big organization like S.H.I.E.L.D. you had to appear more than human to rule, and Phil accomplished that nearly as well as Fury.

She smiled to him.

"Don't worry. It'll be fine. Dr. Banner seemed very nice."

Coulson turned to look at her, weighting something. Darcy arched an eyebrow at him, surprised a remark about the doctor would put him into this mood. He pursed his lips.

"Do you know who Dr. Banner is?"

Darcy frowned, and racked her brain. Was she supposed to? Because honestly, as far as she was concerned, he was simply a slightly absent minded, especially fluffy scientist who lived in the Tower. She cocked her head to the side.

"Hm, Tony Stark's science pal?"

Phil snorted, and looked away.

"I love that you live in the world where someone would expect to come and live with Tony Stark, while being nothing more than a science pal."

Darcy gave him a stern look, which was answered by a small twitch of the lips. She rolled her eyes at him, and leaned on the bed, smirking at him. He arched an eyebrow, unimpressed.

"Come on, old man, enlighten the poor soul I am about the dangers of Dr. Banner."

Phil leaned forward, smirking as well.

"If you are going to be skeptical about everything weird I know more about than you, we're both going to have a problem."

She pinched her lips, and looked away.

"Does it matter? By the time you're alright, I'll be gone."

Phil frowned at her, pushing himself up on an elbow.

"Do you want to go away?"

Darcy stared disbelievingly at him. Of course she didn't, but Barton made it pretty clear. She wasn't in her place.

"No, of course not. But you've said it yourself. I'm an innocent, naive girl who has nothing to do in this place. I won't be a burden."

Phil stared at her for a moment.

"Darcy-"

They were interrupted by a knock on the door. Darcy called out, pretty sure it'd be Pepper. She didn't even turn around when the door open, but noticed Phil's frown, his eyes fleeting between the newcomer and her. She ignored the chill, until the rough voice sounded.

"Hey."

She turned around and sure enough, Barton was there. She could also see the Widow standing in the doorway. She looked back to the man. He was tired, dark circles under his eyes she didn't notice yesterday. He stared directly into her eyes. He didn't like her. That much was obvious. His blue gray ones were cold and hard, but there was no self-pity in them. Well there was some self-hatred but luckily he wouldn't talk about that one now. She nodded to him, satisfied she succeeded in reasoning him. He jerked his head toward Phil.

"Can I talk to him?"

Darcy looked briefly to Coulson, waiting for a sign. He nodded slightly, looking reassuring. Darcy glared at him for a second, before turning around. When she went to go by Barton, he grabbed her upper arm. She froze, not looking at him, waiting. She was pretty sure he wasn't going to start beating her up in front of Coulson. He took a deep breath, and mumbled almost too low for anyone to understand.

"Thank you."

The words were jumbled, as if they were wrung out of him by force. She glanced at him. For a moment, they understood each other. He was grateful that she took care of Phil, that she was there when he couldn't be, and that she stood up to him for Phil. But he despised her for siding with Fury, he hated her for what she said to him, and he resented her for forcing him to express gratitude he would have preferred to not feel. All in all, they weren't the best friends in the world, but he wasn't going to kill her in her sleep.

She was reassured. She nodded, and went for the door. Romanov seemed to be weighing whether or not she should go and see Phil, or if she should come out and talk to Darcy. The younger woman sighed.

"Look, I get it. I hurt him, I disappear from the surface of the planet. But as far as I'm concerned, I did your boyfriend a favor."

Darcy shot a look to the bed, making sure Phil wasn't upset and seemed to enjoy his talk with Barton. She looked back to the red head.

"Go talk to him. He needs you more than I do."

And she exited for real. She felt the weight of Natasha's gaze on the back of her neck until the door closed behind her. She turned momentarily to the door, worrying her lip. She just didn't feel good leaving Coulson alone. She knew the agent wouldn't hurt him. Fury wouldn't have let him go that easily if Phil was in any danger in the Tower. But it still didn't feel right.

Then again, Pepper did mention something about Tony having a spying system around.

"JARVIS?"

She crossed her fingers, hoping that Tony would have at least thought to allow that.

"Yes, Miss Lewis?"

She took in a deep breath.

"Could you please notify me if Phil seems distressed, or upset, or anything?"

There was a pause.

"Yes, Miss Lewis, I will. If I may, I would like to add that Agent Coulson seems very comfortable at the moment. Shall I show you to your room?"

Darcy looked at the door, than at the bare hallway. Than the door. Than the hallway. She sighed, and leaned momentarily on the wall. She would do no good by staying here. And she was tired. She was pretty sure a bed around here would be made of an alloy of marshmallows and cotton candy. But what if Coulson needed her? JARVIS disembodied voice rung out once more.

"I will notify you as well if Agent Coulson needs you."

She smiled weakly at the ceiling. She decided looking at the ceiling was the best option at the moment, since she had no idea where JARVIS actually was.

"Thanks, JARVIS. You're the best."

The answer was quick, this time. Darcy could tell the system was touched by her compliment.

"You're welcome Miss Lewis. And may I add, once more, that we are glad that you are here."

Darcy smiled a bit self-deprecatingly.

"You don't know me."

"And you don't know us. Yet you agreed to come live here because you wanted to take care of Agent Coulson. We protect our own. People who protect our own are part of us."

Darcy smiled, and followed the path JARVIS lit up for her. Unsurprisingly, the room was huge. And equipped with a monitor linked to Coulson's room. And a lot of other things Darcy was pretty sure she couldn't name, and certainly didn't know how to use. JARVIS spoke one last time.

"Agent Coulson also would like you to watch some videos."

A screen came to life at one end of the room. Darcy frowned and carefully dropped her bag, walking slowly toward it. She deposited herself gingerly in it the chair, afraid to break it.

A security record started playing, and Darcy, slowly, started to sprawl in the sofa. It was stronger than her. It was just that awesome. The record showed a man she recognized as Dr. Banner. The city looked like New York, but Darcy couldn't be sure. She was more of a West Coast girl. She cocked her head, and all of the sudden, the army barged in. Darcy frowned, and leaned in.

And jumped back when Dr. Banner exploded. Literally. And turned green.

Fuck. The Hulk. Dr. Banner was the Hulk. The quiet, nice, unassuming man was the Hulk.

Phil was right. She was naive. At the end of the recording, which lasted just long enough to see the complete transformation, a message came.

'This is why we need you around. Dr. Banner needs people to treat him normally. Never underestimate the power of an innocent smile.

Phil'

Darcy stared at the screen for a while. Her boss was officially a mind reader. No matter what he said. Or maybe she was obvious. It was part of the innocent thing. Naive people are predictable.

"He wouldn't go through that much trouble if he didn't want you here."

She turned around. Barton was in the door, leaning on in, looking as cool as a cucumber. He jerked his head toward the screen.

"And he wouldn't want you around here if he didn't think you were good enough."

Darcy forced a strained smile on her face.

"And you don't agree. After all, I'm not part of this world."

He half shrugged.

"What I think doesn't matter. You're here for him. Not me."

Darcy couldn't help but be grateful she _wasn't _taking care of Barton. She knew it would have ended with something on fire. Probably Barton. And someone in jail. Her, if she wasn't able to frame someone else. Anyway, she was digressing.

"Well, that is fortunate. Now why are you here? For the 'Be careful, don't hurt him or I'll hurt you' routine?"

He arched an eyebrow at her.

"No. I'm here for the 'We're done, and Phil wants to see you' routine."

He turned around and left. Darcy arched an eyebrow and huffed.

"Well, it was nice talking to you too."

She walked to Coulson's room, and plopped down on the bed.

"Nice talk?"

Coulson let out a long suffering sigh and lightly poked her with his foot until she moved a bit farther down the bed. Phil eyed her for a moment, before opening his mouth again.

"Yes thanks. It was good to talk to them again."

She nodded.

"Then I'm glad you did."

He cocked his head.

"They're not your biggest fans."

"Great. I'm not theirs. Come on, you need to do your exercises."

Phil grumbled while she helped him into position.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Darcy was slowly finding her way around the Tower as days went by. Phil was finally able to walk a bit, so far using it to pace around his room. Stark -who insisted on being called Tony or Supreme Overlord- proposed him to build a wheel chair. The answering look Coulson gave him could have withered trees, and send the billionaire running back to his lab with his tail between his legs. Darcy smiled, and bumped her shoulder against Phil's.

"Don't worry, boss. Soon you won't have to worry about that anymore."

Phil had grimaced, and hadn't commented farther, turning back to his report, trying to blow off some pent up frustration via frowning. Darcy wasn't sure he was getting anywhere with that, but hey. Super G-Man at work here. Nothing he can't do, he's just too awesome for that.

Limitations are so 2011.

She learned that sometimes, despite all his competency, logic, and experience, an eye roll and a shake of the head was the best way to deal with Phil Coulson. No wonder he was the one designated to keep an eye on Stark. He was stubborn, hard-headed and single minded when he wanted to be. No wonder Fury thought he would needed someone with a degree in Political Science to watch out for him, because Coulson had sent one of his nurses away crying one day when his condition was grating on him more than usual. Darcy simply glared at him, hit him upside the head and ignored his sullen mood until the poor woman was gone.

Then, she found an episode of CSI: Miami, and hid the remote on the top of the shelf, which Coulson couldn't reach with his injuries. He didn't talk to her for a day after that, claiming that torture was forbidden in the Tower. Darcy once again rolled her eyes.

"Tony Stark makes the Tower's rules, and I don't think he'd like that you've distressed the personnel he pays for because you threw a hissy fit."

Coulson pursed his lips, glaring at her some more. Darcy couldn't help but wonder how agents would react to that look. They would probably die of cardiac arrest at such a display of emotion.

"Stark is a worst patient than I'll ever be."

Darcy stared, unimpressed at him.

"Yes. And he's the one paying for his nurses."

Coulson glared at her some more, but behaved himself afterwords, under the threat of another round of CSI: Miami. However he did make Darcy swear she would never tell anyone about his weakness. Darcy snorted and agreed. And bumped her shoulder against his.

"Your secret's safe with me, Elrond."

He sighed, pressing the heel of his hands to his eyes.

"I'm stuck with this nickname until the day I die, aren't I?"

Darcy chuckled evilly, playful smirk tugging her lips.

"Don't be ridiculous, elves don't die."

He chuckled, despite himself.

"Any chance you'd keep it to yourself?"

Darcy snorted, and curled herself at the foot of his bed like she often did, her smirk stretching to a full, scary, probably slightly psychotic, smile. Coulson, now immune to it, waited for her answer. She leaned forward.

"Now, now, boss. You can't ask me to surrender all my good blackmail material."

He groaned, and let his head fall back against the head board of the bed. She chuckled, and fished out her Stark Phone -given to her by Tony the day after she arrived, which she guessed was his apology for forgetting about him-, opened Angry Birds, and stared hunting green pigs. Coulson pursed his lips in distaste.

"You spend hours of your time flicking birds at pigs, in an attempt to rescue virtual eggs, and yet you dare maligning my taste in TV?"

Darcy didn't even look up.

"If you shut up and be nice, Elrond, I'll tell them Fury's Galadriel."

"You're not playing fair Cayenne."

"Never said I would. I'm a poli-sci graduate."

OOOOOOOOO

The major change to living in the Tower was that she had human contact outside of Coulson and the medical staff. She didn't count Fury as a human contact. She had to go to the kitchen to get food for her and Phil, and that meant meeting the rest of the household on occasion. Pepper would sometimes be in the lounge and would take a few seconds to inquire about Phil, despite coming by every day she was in the country. ]Otherwise, she was always running around, trying to get wrangle Tony for something or another, or doing damage control for Tony. Darcy always waited for the other woman to initiate the contact, not entirely sure she wouldn't be bitten if she interrupted at the wrong time. JARVIS assured Darcy that Pepper was vaccinated for rabies, though.

But, all in all, Pepper was very nice to her, enforcing JARVIS's statement that anyone taking care of Phil would be welcome in the Tower. Darcy smiled, and nodded. She still hadn't gotten around to telling her parents she was living with Tony Stark, first because they would draw the wrong conclusions, and second because she had no idea how to explain how she got there. She couldn't talk to them about Thor, and as much as she thought about the situation, the plausible explanations all implied Thor somehow.

Yeah, she was aware that her most believable explanations included a super powered alien who crashed on Earth after being exiled by his father. But honestly, how else was she supposed to justified living with one of the richest men on Earth, babysitting one of the head's of a secret agency? And she didn't even consider about telling them about the Hulk. They would march right up there to drag her back home.

Poor Dr. Banner. Aside from Pepper, he was the one she was most likely to run into. Every few days, he'd come into Coulson's room, take one look at her, and would leave with a promise to come back a little while later with something home cooked and ridiculously delicious. Phil would thank him warmly for taking care of Darcy, and the woman would grumble she could take care of herself, thank you very much. Cue disbelieving looks from the both of them. Repeat every few days.

Other times, Darcy would be the one cooking, and Dr. Banner -'call me Bruce-Or Shrek!-No, Tony, just Bruce' -would walk in, without really realizing it before he was sitting at the isle, and Darcy would slip a portion of whatever she was cooking in front of him. He would thank her with a look, and dig in, savouring it. Darcy wasn't the best cook in the world, but she could whip up some pretty amazing comfort food.

As far as she was aware, both Bruce and Tony lived down in the labs, only coming out to get some food and shower every once in a while. To get them away from that was usually far more trouble than it was worth, especially since when forced, they would simply continue talking science until someone gave up and sent them back. It was easier to just wait for them to emerge.

Darcy liked to think that she and Bruce got along so well because the both of them had a bit of difficulty accepting they were actually there, living with Tony Stark and everything that it entails.

And sometimes, for no reason she was aware of, Tony would send them a message in the middle of the afternoon to tell them not to cook anything, he would take care of it. They would end up, all of them, Pepper, Tony, Bruce, Darcy and Phil, sitting in the agent's room with various types of take out, talking about movies, and music, and almost feeling like normal people.

Darcy also learned that Agent Romanov and Barton lived at some S.H.I.E.L.D. issued location, even though they came to the Tower almost every day to see Phil. Darcy knew Tony had tried to convince them to move in as well, luring them with custom built floors for them alone and all that jazz, but neither of them accepted. From the little Phil told her about them, they still had difficulty with the concept of the team, and saw their get together at the chitauri invasion as a one time situation, and not like the beginning of something Tony thought it was.

Phil was always pretty tight lipped about his agents, but as he once told Darcy, they didn't like her much and wouldn't appreciate Phil volunteering information about their lives to her. Or anyone, but her at the moment, since Phil didn't really talk to anyone else.

And Tony, well she didn't see much of him, except on the special evenings. He was either in his lab, or at Stark Industries, or on very, very rare occasion, sleeping. The best way to know was if you could see Bruce. If yes, Tony wasn't in the lab. The billionaire was very possessive of his Science Bro, as he called Bruce. To the point where even Pepper made a comment about being concerned about her boyfriend's sexual orientation. Tony answered with a slow grin.

"Pepper, you know I've always cheated on you with Science."

Pepper rolled her eyes, but didn't answer, and exited the room, just slow enough for Darcy to notice her small smile. Tony leaned on Bruce's shoulder.

"Sorry, Big Guy, but you're not my type."

Bruce gave a dry look to Tony, and patted the billionaire's head.

"Don't worry Tony, I think I'll live through the pain."

OOOOOOO

Darcy was getting attuned to the rhythm of the house, it's quirks. As Bruce and Pepper predicted, she didn't get used to it, because there was no way to get used to a robot interrupting her shower to dowse her with a fire extinguisher. She received the brand new Stark Pad as an apology for that one. Apparently Tony made the mistake of telling Bruce in front of Dummy that she was "smoking hot."

So, the point was, when she walked to the kitchen at seven thirty this morning to get breakfast for her and Coulson, she wasn't expecting to hear an argument coming from it. She frowned. Pepper usually argued with Tony in the living room or in their room. Bruce waited at least until ten in the morning, to be sure he wasn't waking anybody.

She moved forward cautiously, not wanting to walk in on a stranger, because she was in pajamas and her hair looked like an eagle's nest. At first, it looked like Tony was alone, so Darcy elected he was talking through a phone, and that he wasn't mad enough yet to argue with imaginary people, but as she got close, she heard the quiet, rough voice that was answering him. When she popped her head in the room, her assumption was proven right, and Barton was there, arms crossed. She saw his eyes flit to her immediately, and that jeopardized any chance she had of walking away, acting as if she saw nothing. So she didn't even bother, walking right in, and manoeuvring around them to start preparing breakfast for her and Coulson. Tony flailed his arms around.

"Why do you insist on living there? You're miserable."

Barton sneered, and his shoulders tensed even more.

"I'm not. And I have nowhere else to go."

Stark snorted.

"Pull the other one. You know perfectly well I'm inviting you to come here. Will you just shut up and do it already?"

Barton pursed his lips.

"I don't need your charity."

Tony sighed.

"It's not charity. I built a floor for you because you're a part of the team, and right now it's wasted, because you're not living here."

"Why do you care."

Tony shrugged, cool as a cucumber where Barton looked nearly ready to kill.

"I don't. But I don't want to waste space in my Tower. And a certain agent is pestering me about it."

Tony sighed, and continued.

"Look, I know how it is, to have people ignoring and avoiding you unless they need you. To have people sneering at you behind your back because they're scared. And I know it makes you miserable. Move in."

Barton waved an arm around.

"I'm pretty sure there's people around here that don't want me here either."

Darcy wasn't a genius, but she knew that one was directed to her. She paused from where she was buttering toast, and answered without looking up.

"I want you to move in."

Tony let out a triumphant shout, and Darcy could picture perfectly the way he threw his arms up.

"Great! See there? You're moving in, the young lady said so. Pack, I'm sending people tomorrow to get your things here."

Tony exited the room, and Barton appeared suddenly by her side, lips pursed.

"Why did you say that?"

Darcy sighed, and reached for the blueberries.

"Because it's true."

"Why?"

There was a lot of subtext to this short question. Why would she do that to herself, when she didn't like him. Why would she agree to live with him? The answer was simple, and she was a bit surprised he didn't think of it himself.

"Because Phil wants you to."

She pushed herself from the counter, breakfast tray in hand, moving back to the agent's room. Barton called from behind her.

"Everything for Phil, then?"

She refused to answer to that question, and its double meaning. Instead she replied over her shoulder.

"It's not often Tony bares his soul, you should mark the date."

And she was gone. He probably answered with something, but she didn't care anymore at that point. She did her good deed of the day. Phil's eyes were closed when she entered the room, but Darcy wasn't fooled. The agent hated sleeping during the day, it made his head fuzzy, and threw off his balance.

"Hey Boss, breakfast time."

His eyes fluttered open, zeroing quickly on the food.

"Thanks."

She waved her hand laxly, dropping on the chair beside the bed, pulling the rolling table between them.

"It's alright. Hey, Barton's moving in tomorrow."

Phil's eyebrows shot up.

"About time. Stubborn idiot."

Darcy smiled.

"Do you think Romanov will follow?"

He shrugged, gazing at his toast as if it held the answer of Darcy's question. Well, if it did, they could make some pretty good money by selling it on ebay. If not, well Coulson was stalling.

"I don't know. Natasha values her privacy. Maybe if both me and Clint put up a really good case."

Darcy frowned at that.

"But, aren't she and Barton living together? I mean, since they're together and all?"

Coulson looked a bit puzzled for a moment before smiling.

"They don't, and they aren't together. Just very close friends. Saving each others life a couple of times does that to people."

Darcy nodded, and finished her breakfast. Her couple radar must have been wreaked sometime during the madness, because she had been sure the both of them were bumping uglies, and she was never wrong about things like that usually. Ah well, if it meant that no baby would come out of these two together, she was grateful. The world didn't need to endure that pain. Coulson was looking at her with a speculative look on his face, but shook his head when she raised an eyebrow in question.

Times like this, she really wished there was some way to contact and talk to Jane, because she really, really needed some girl talk about what happened in the tower.

OOOOOOOOO

The transition from five inhabitants to six went smoothly. Mostly because Barton was never around, or if he was, he was hidden pretty well. No one really saw him, unless Bruce was cooking. He avoided Darcy's roster night on principle, and no one else could really cook. JARVIS once informed Coulson that the archer usually came out at night when no one else was around to raid the fridge.

Otherwise, he still went to talk to Coulson once a day, during which Darcy did her best to make herself scarce. One reason being that she didn't want to start an argument with Barton in front of Phil. Another being that most of what they talked about was classified and way above her pay grade.

But once, Bruce asked her to please go tell the two men that the lunch was ready, and she went to them, instead of waiting for Barton to come and get her. When she got closer, she heard Barton's voice, more passionate than she ever heard it, escaping from the door he didn't close completely.

"Come on, Phil, it'll do you some good."

The Agent gave a long suffering sigh in return.

"Clint, I don't know if you've noticed, but I can barely walk around my room by myself."

The archer continued what was, according to their tone, a long standing argument.

"You need to get some air, Phil. A change of scenery."

"That's why I moved out of the carrier."

"Yeah, you moved out of room and into another one. That doesn't count, Phil."

There was a sigh, and Darcy decided to intervene. It wasn't as if the discussion was going anywhere. If she had to make a guess, it had been running around in circles for a while. She knocked on the door. The noise stopped and she pushed it open to stick her head in.

"Bruce says the lunch is ready."

Clint nodded, and exited, his sullen mood hanging like a cloud around him, perverting everything it touched. Darcy took a deep breathe, and looked at Phil.

"I'll be back in five."

"No need."

She twisted to see his face. He looked exhausted, like he hadn't been in a few weeks, and his face was pale. Darcy tightened her jaw, locking her knees in place, to keep her from hunting Barton down and beating him up. She'd warned him.

"Phil?"

He shook his head, sliding down the covers, to settle himself to sleep. Darcy frowned, debating whether to go in to make sure he wasn't sick. But Phil wouldn't appreciate it, especially if he wasn't sick. She grimaced when he winced, and rasped a breathe to talk to her.

"I'll sleep now. Please, take the afternoon off, get out of here a bit, it'll do you some good."

Darcy was at lost for words. He never slept during the day. He hated to. And he never asked her to stay away. She knew he didn't mind when she did, but he let her come and go as she pleased.

"Phil?"

He sighed again.

"Please, Darcy."

She bit her lip and finally sighed, and left, closing the door behind her. When she was sure Phil couldn't hear her anymore, she stormed off. By that time she found Barton, he was seated in the kitchen, eating, and she didn't want to have this conversation in public. So she swallowed her rant, and took her plate from Bruce as well. Tony and Bruce disappeared quickly into the lab, and Darcy got up at the same time as Barton, barrelling into him. She hit him as hard as she could on the chest, which meant he probably barely felt it.

"What's your problem?! Which part of he's weak is too hard for you too grasp?"

Barton's expression went from blank to defensive in a fraction of second.

"He's not going to get better if you keep mothering him."

Darcy bristled.

"No, the way to achieve that is to exhaust him to the point where he needs to sleep in the

afternoon, something he _never _does."

Clint sneered, walking toward her.

"Look kid, I don't care if you appointed yourself his bodyguard-"

"Fury appointed me his bodyguard."

Barton pursed his lips, which wasn't attractive, at all.

"Fury also lied to us all about Phil being dead."

Darcy cried.

"Well, he was probably right, because you seem pretty intent on sending him to the morgue for good."

Barton shook, and his look went from annoyed to downright _mad. _

"I would never do that."

Darcy hit is chest again.

"Well, you're on the path. You know, for someone who's blaming himself so much for the deaths he caused, you're not too careful about his."

Barton was going to hit her. She saw it. She would probably deserve it. She knew he cared about Phil, but she just couldn't let him worsen his condition. Finally he hissed.

"You have no idea…"

She smiled tightly.

"Thanks, I got that part the first time."

He leaned in.

"You can't like it. Being stuck in here all the time."

Something clicked.

"You're the one who made Phil feel bad about keeping me here, you asshole!"

He leaned back. She walked to him, poking him in the chest to make her point.

"Don't you ever dare to use me as an argument with Phil again. Ever. Clear Barton?"

His eyes flamed.

"Who do you think you are, you little arrogant-"

"What's going on here?"

A newcomer was standing in the doorway, eyeing them gingerly. Clint straightened, and took a step back from her, face blank once more. He gave the blond man a tight nod.

"Captain."

Darcy, who had been salivating over the man's muscles up until now, snapped her eyes back up, staring. Captain America. Holy shit.

She had just been caught in a shouting match with Barton by Captain America. Fuck her life. She felt herself redden to the roots of her hairs. The blond answered to Clint's nod.

"Hawkeye. It's pleasure to see you again."

He looked to Darcy, arching an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry, I don't know you."

Clint answered before Darcy could.

"Darcy Lewis. She's the one taking care of Coulson."

Steve turned around so fast, Darcy was worried he snapped his neck.

"Coulson? Agent Coulson? But he's dead!"

"Nope."

Tony appeared behind Captain, cleaning his hands on a rug. He nodded to the man. Darcy decided she was supposed to say something.

"It's an honour, Captain."

He cocked his head.

"Steve, please Miss Lewis."

She nodded.

"Then it's Darcy."

"A pleasure, Darcy."

Then he turned to Tony and Clint.

"Agent Coulson is not dead?"

Tony shook his head.

"Turns out Fury's a big, fat liar. Who's surprised? Note the complete absence of hands. Anyway, it was to give us something to fight for, to glue us all together, or some bullshit like that. So he's alive, and mending, because he did got stabbed."

Darcy pipped in.

"And he did flatline."

Steve pondered it, and spoke slowly.

"Can I see him?"

Darcy smiled tightly.

"No, you can't." She glared at Barton. "He's sleeping at the moment."

The archer seemed a bit sheepish at the moment, realizing he just kept Phil from seeing his childhood hero once more. Tony shook his head anyway, and clamped an almost clean hand on Steve's shoulder.

"You couldn't anyway, you haven't come here for the Agent."

Steve gave him a worried look.

"I don't even know why I'm here, Tony."

The billionaire gave him an easy grin.

"So that you can move in!"

Steve sighed, and gave a tolerant look to Tony.

"I can't, Tony. I still have things to do. I'm sorry."

The billionaire pouted, put out by what seemed to be another refusal to be added to a bunch of others.

"Ah come on, Cap. Even Barton moved in!"

Steve shook his head.

"I'm glad for him, Tony, but I can't. Not now."

Tony's eyes lighted up.

"I'm holding you on your 'not now', you stand warned. Anyway, I called you to talk about your uniform. I thought of a few tweaks I could do to improve it. What about you come to the lab?"

And he dragged the poor Captain toward the stairs, while the blond threw them a helpless look over his shoulder. Darcy snorted, before realizing she was once again alone with Barton in the room. The archer was still looking at where the Captain had disappeared, looking a bit guilty. Darcy knew why, Coulson would have loved to see the Captain again, and would have taken a great pleasure in helping defend his idol against Tony. After a long while, he turned his blue stare to her, boring into the deeper parts of her soul. This close she couldn't help but notice that his eyes were spectacular when they weren't hard as diamonds. It was really a shame. Such pretty, pretty eyes.

She swallowed, and he did the same.

"I'm sorry, Lewis. I'll try not to upset Phil anymore in the future."

She bit her lip, and nodded.

"It's okay, if you can talk Steve into staying long enough to talk to him."

He nodded, tersely.

"I'll see what I can do."

And he left.

OOOOOOOOO

Phil did get to talk to Captain America. Darcy, despite his instructions, went to check on him just before dinner, and found him awake. She had smiled at him, and had let Steve in. She left them alone, but got a glimpse of Phil's adorable star struck face. She smiled sweetly.

She spent the rest of the evening with Bruce, listening to the scientist rant about what Tony and Steve had been up too all this time. Apparently, it had been worse than shopping with girls. Tony had prepared five potential versions of the uniform, which he insisted Steve try on one after the other.

When they had decided which one they liked most, they tested all the gadgets Tony managed to put in it, most of them a sane person wouldn't even have considered. But no one ever tried to pretend Tony was sane.

Bruce simply seemed satisfied Steve and Tony were now able to be in the same room without being at each other's throats. Darcy nodded, hoping she would at some point get there with Clint and Natasha, but she wasn't ready to bet a lot of money on that. Not until Phil was up, and able to care of himself.

When she fell asleep on the couch with Bruce, and woke up in her own bed, she decided Steve was on her favorite person list, along with JARVIS and Bruce.

Phil wasn't. Phil was in the 'Surrogate Father' list. He was the only one on the list. Unsurprisingly.

OOOOOOOO

She woke up with a jerk, in the middle of the night. She flailed around, until she noticed the dark shape occupying her chair. She patted around for her glasses, never taking her eyes off said shape. She finally slid her lenses up her nose, and recognize the Widow's flaming mane.

She swallowed.

The spy didn't move. Didn't talk. Darcy wasn't even sure she breathed. Maybe Tony decided to play a prank and install a wax statue of Natasha in her room. She straightened slowly, arching an eyebrow.

Finally, deliberately, Romanov cocked her head to the side.

Darcy knew it must have to do with what she said to Barton that afternoon. She had been warned not to hurt him, and she did anyway. The spy was there to teach her why she was called the Black Widow.

Darcy had no idea what to do, so she shifted her weight to her right arm, and waved with her left, speaking hoarsely.

"Hey."

The woman didn't move. Until suddenly she was on her feet. Darcy still sleepy brain missed the second where she actually moved, and strangely thought of Twilight, were Bella could never keep up with Edward. Maybe Romanov was a vampire. It'd explain so much.

Darcy barely restrained her groan. She hated her sleepy brain. It never focused on the right thing. Who cared about Twilight? And Romanov would definitely not need her teeth to kill Darcy.

The red head slowly walked to the bed, never leaving Darcy with her eyes.

She stopped when she was beside her shoulder, and Darcy didn't move. Anything. She wasn't even breathing. She couldn't breathe.

She couldn't risk upsetting the spider..

Finally, Romanov spoke, quietly, breaking the silence of the night.

"Be careful."

And she left, so quickly that Darcy once again had difficulty keeping up.

The words hadn't been as aggressive as last time.

They hadn't any been less foreboding, though.


	6. Chapter 6

During the next few days, Darcy encouraged Coulson to walk around a bit more, helping him reach the living room couch to watch TV with the others. She pushed him to eat with the rest of them. Coulson grumbled and winced, but did as she told. She was always careful, watching for signs of fatigue, but Coulson did well. When it would get to be too much, he would nod at her and they would go back to his room, and she would tuck him for the night.

After a week of this, at nine in the evening, Darcy was in the kitchen, staring at the counter top and attempting to will herself to do something more than stand there. She did her best not to show it, but the new regime was tiring her as well. She didn't notice someone else was in the room until he spoke.

"You look good."

Barton's voice was so dripping with sarcasm, Darcy actually fought the impulse to check if the floor was wet. She turned around. Ever since their last 'discussion' she and Barton fell into a polite mutual ignorance. They would nod their welcome and that was about it, especially if Coulson was in the room as well. Neither of them wanted to upset Coulson by shouting at each other again. And Captain America wasn't around anymore to interrupt them this time. So, basically acting like the other didn't exist was the best solution. Coulson didn't really like it, but they both felt it was the best option.

But that didn't explain why Barton was suddenly attempting to be social with her.

"Thanks, Bow Boy."

He sputtered, glaring at her.

"Bow Boy?"

She arched an eyebrow at him, daring him to protest. He rolled his eyes, but let it go.

"Alright, alright. I just wanted to- thank you I guess."

Darcy's eyebrows shot up, and she was pretty sure her mouth was hanging open. She forced herself to utter something a bit more dignified than a squeak.

"What?"

He sighed.

"Thank you, for taking my opinion into account."

Darcy sighed, and attempted to find something to say that wouldn't be insulting. Willing her brain to work, and stop spinning in mud.

"Just because you're a jerk doesn't mean you're always wrong. And I probably mothered him too much."

Darcy turned back to the fridge, to get herself a glass of milk. Barton still stood in the kitchen.

"You've taken good care of him."

She took a deep breath, and focused on her task.

"You would have done the same thing."

"Yeah, because I worked with him for years. You didn't."

Darcy set the glass on the counter, and turned to face him.

"Look, Barton, as much as I appreciate having a civilized conversation with you for once, I'd really like to know if there is a point to this. Because I really, really need to sleep at the moment."

Barton opened his mouth, closed it, then opened and closed it again. Pinching his lips, he let out a sigh before speaking again.

"I think Coulson could use getting out of here. Get some fresh air."

Darcy took a gulp of milk, shooting him a calculating look over the brim of the glass. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, before pointing him.

"You want to take Coulson out? Why, Barton, I had no idea you swung that way."

He looked thoroughly unimpressed, gazing at her.

"I was thinking more about an evening with Natasha and you."

She nearly choked on her milk.

"You want me to come along?"

Barton snorted.

"Yeah, well you're kinda a bitch as far as I'm concerned, though Banner, JARVIS, Pepper and Phil seem to believe the contrary. But I thought it'd satisfy your mother hen tendencies if we allowed you to tag along."

She pursed her lips.

"You're too good for me."

Barton cocked his head to the side.

"Is that a yes?"

Darcy smiled tightly.

"That's a 'I'm going to sleep, and we're going to talk about it when I'm not about to drop'."

She walked past him.

"That wasn't a no."

"Bravo Barton, you can officially understand basic English."

She heard him huff behind her, before he called out.

"You're a bitch, Lewis."

She waved at him over her shoulder.

OOOOOOOOO

The day after, while Phil was talking to Pepper in the living room, Darcy dropped beside Clint who was cleaning a couple of his knives in the kitchen. He kept his head down, but cut her a glance through his eyelashes, arching an inquisitive eyebrow at her.

"Where do you want to take him?"

His second eyebrow shot up to catch up with its twin, and the archer finally raised his head, apparently surprised.

"You agree with me?"

Darcy frowned, leaning back in her chair, opening her arms.

"I did say we'd talk about it later, didn't I?"

He deposited the blades on the table, and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Yeah, but I didn't think..."

Darcy snorted when she understood where this was going.

"You didn't think I'd agree, so you decided to ask me when I was dead tired, so that I would be more inclined to bend."

He didn't answer, looking defensive. She snorted again.

"Smooth, Barton. Abusing a helpless young woman like that."

He seemed surprised at her reaction, and Darcy kept herself from rolling her eyes at him. She wasn't going to blow up in his face. Not for something like that, anyway.

"So, I'm asking my question again, since you've yet to answer it. Where do you want to take him?"

Barton opened his mouth, still uncomfortable.

"Lewis, I-"

She sighed.

"Look, I get it. I'm a nagging bitch, and you're an opportunistic git. Can we move on?"

Barton's jaw clenched, and he looked about to protest the terms, but thought against it in the end. He grumbled, shrugging slightly, like it was no big deal.

"Just a little place we used to go sometimes."

Darcy arched an eyebrow, cocking her head.

"Define little place?"

He sighed, exasperated.

"A little Italian restaurant. I assure you no one will try to stab him with a bread knife and I'm pretty sure there's a ramp for wheelchairs, so he won't be too tired before entering it."

Darcy nodded, but didn't answer, pondering the risks. Fury would probably want her head if she did that, but she was pretty sure if she threw Stark in his way, the billionaire would be able to occupy the Big Boss long enough for her to run away. Barton seemed to think he was losing the point.

"Look Lewis. With the lives we have, we all need to have recurring habits. Rituals, if you want. It keeps us grounded. Makes everything feel real. Phil needs that, to feel his life is as normal as it ever was. And that restaurant was one of our things. It'll help him."

Darcy nodded, and she felt weary. She could never fully understand this world, and she felt she was walking in a mine field. She also blew a couple of them up on the way. Two of them being make nice with Romanov and Barton, Coulson's closest friends. She finally spoke.

"Okay. It's fine. When are you going?"

Barton grinned, eyes lighting up.

"I was thinking the day after tomorrow."

Darcy nodded again, and seriously, it was getting old. She felt like a bobble head. She got to her feet.

"Perfect. I hope you have fun."

The archer automatically frowned. Darcy frowned at such a quick change of mood. The man had always been mercurial but not to this point.

"You're coming too, right?"

Darcy shrugged.

"I don't think it'd be a good thing."

Barton's eyes darted around, as if he was trying to find someone who told Darcy so.

"Why?"

"You've said it yourself. It needs to be like old times. And that's you, Natasha, and Phil."

Barton shot this his feet, walked to her.

"You were always included in the plan, Lewis."

She snorted humorlessly.

"Yeah, because you thought I'd be less trouble if you dragged me along. Don't worry, I won't bother you. Go and have fun."

Barton looked slightly annoyed now.

"Lewis-"

She cried, thankful that the kitchen was far enough from the living room that Coulson wouldn't hear them.

"For God's sake, Barton, is it that hard to understand? Just go, and make sure Phil has fun. I'm just asking you to let me know when you come back."

Scratch annoyed, Barton was pissed now.

"You know what's your biggest problem, Lewis? You never listen to anyone. You just do whatever _you _think to be the right thing."

Darcy ignored the stabbing pain the words brought up. How was Barton able to get to her that much? No one ever did. She felt completely raw when she talked to him.

"And why are you trying so hard to pretend you want me there? You hate me!"

He reddened.

"You have no right to tell me how I feel!"

Darcy had had enough, and turned around, walking away briskly. Barton let her and didn't call after her, for which she was thankful. She wasn't sure how much more she could have taken without hitting him.

She nodded to Coulson and went to her room to be alone for a while. She needed to get herself in check.

She needed to understand herself, if she ever wanted to understand Barton.

OOOOOOOO

The day after, Darcy was in her room again, reading, while Phil went through some new tests. He didn't care whether she was there or not, she'd end up knowing what was up anyway, but the medical staff wasn't really comfortable with her around. When told, Tony shrugged and said they made their business by treating rich and important people who wanted tight-lipped and competent doctors. Having a non-related civilian with them in the room wasn't something they were used to. So Darcy usually chose to let them work in peace, and occupied herself otherwise.

She turned her page, and looked up to throw a look outside to realize she wasn't alone anymore. Natasha was once more curled up in her chair, looking at Darcy. The brunette started, pushing herself sitting and plastered against her bed headboard. The red head didn't move, looking at her, waiting for the younger woman to calm down.

Darcy pressed a hand to her chest, willing her heart beat to slow down. A few moments later, she decided she could trust her voice. It was still breathy, but that was much better than high pitched and shrill.

"You know, if you keep sneaking into my room to watch me, I may start to think you have impure thoughts about my innocent body."

Which she already knew, because she was pretty sure murder intentions counted as impure thoughts. Natasha cocked her head to the side, pondering yet again on Darcy. You'd think that after all that time, the master spy would have known the other girl through and through. But apparently no. Or she was once again reconsidering how she was going to dispose of her.

Darcy grimaced.

"I'm pretty sure I didn't hurt Barton this time."

Still no answer, and Darcy was pretty sure the Widow was attempting to scare her into an early heart attack. If so, the brunette would be more than willing to go get her razor and end this now. It'd save everyone time.

"Agent Romanov?"

Finally she talked.

"Call me Natasha."

Uh. Not how she expected this discussion to go. The Widow and Hawkeye were the only two who hadn't been given free reign over her first name, and the only ones who didn't use hers. Except JARVIS, but she was pretty sure the AI couldn't call her by her first name. He didn't use anyone's, despite Bruce's instances.

Darcy had never been really picky over who called her Darcy and who called her Miss Lewis, but she also pretty sure she was really, really far away from knowing the two agents well enough to call them by their first names. She still managed to croak out an answer.

"Well, call me Darcy, I guess."

The Widow-Natasha's lips twitched slightly downward. She seemed displeased with something, which Darcy deemed an improvement from mad and murderous. Natasha sighed, and leaned forward.

"I am sorry, Darcy."

Darcy's eyes widened and darted around the room, looking for the cameras. Well, for the cameras that weren't usually there. Because, honestly, this had to be some kind of prank. Tony must have found some way to coerce Natasha- may God bless his soul- into fooling her like that. She swallowed again.

"I think I have entered the twilight zone."

Natasha pursed her lips at this. She pushed herself upright from the chair, and walked to the bed, and she seated herself at the edge of it.

"Clint told me you didn't want to come with us tomorrow."

The Widow's voice was still emotionless and Darcy didn't understand anything anymore. So she decided to simply answer the question, and hope she wouldn't blew up another mine on the way.

"I just don't think you would want me to come."

Natasha pinched her lips.

"Do _you _want to come?"

Darcy frowned.

"I told you, I-"

Natasha spoke harshly.

"Answer."

Darcy swallowed.

"Yes, I'd like to come, to keep an eye on Phil."

The red head cocked her head to the side, weighing the answer until she was sure she understood it, and the possible sub-text, perfectly. Darcy did her best not to twitch under the cold blue stare.

"I don't hate you. Clint doesn't either."

Darcy's eyes widened and she was once again at a loss for words. It was so unfair that with Barton she couldn't stop herself from talking, while she could barely utter three coherent words with Romanov. So she waited for the other woman to continue, since it wasn't a question, but a statement. People state things when they have a purpose, a point to make. Romanov more than anyone. Darcy had seen her argue with Stark once, it was artistic the way she twisted her words around like snares to trap her preys. Like a spider on a web, just waiting for her victim to realize it was doomed.

"We are sorry you were lead to believe we do."

Darcy couldn't help it this time.

"Yeah. Threatening to kill people leaves that impression."

Natasha's lips twitched once more, translating far more than Darcy could ever dream to comprehend. The intern went back to staring wordlessly, waiting for the Widow. Natasha nodded.

"We would like you to come tomorrow. Because you take good care of Phil."

Darcy sighed. Yeah, she was the baby sitter. Only brought when convenient.

"Thank you Natasha, I am grateful for the invitation, but I'm sure you and Barton are able to take care of him perfectly well for an evening."

The Widow pursed her lips, frustrated. Maybe Darcy should stop talking altogether, it wasn't doing any good.

"We aren't inviting you so that you can take care of him while we are there. He is not an infant who needs to be supervised. We are inviting you because you took care of him."

Darcy frowned, trying desperately to make sense of what was happening, but she felt she was failing miserably.

"I don't understand."

Natasha cocked her head to the side and stood up. Darcy frowned, not aware the discussion was over.

"One who takes care of one of us as good as you did becomes one of us, Darcy."

The young woman felt her heart squeeze. Pepper, Bruce, Steve, and Jarvis all said similar things to her, but somehow it seemed to mean so much more coming from Natasha. Darcy ignored the way her eyes filled up, because she wasn't going to cry in front of one of the world's deadliest assassins. She wasn't even sure why she was on the brink of crying. Probably a mix of being accepted by Natasha, and knowing the woman wasn't going to kill her anytime soon.

Darcy willed her voice to remain steady and was surprised it obeyed.

"I don't think Barton agrees."

Natasha's lips twitched again, but thankfully upward this time.

"Clint is an idiot, but he'll come around. Don't worry."

Darcy nodded once more and Natasha turned around to exit the room, as silently as she had entered it. Darcy let herself slid down the headboard in a relieved pile of jelly, content with lying silently in bed.

'Clint is an idiot.'

'I don't hate you. Clint doesn't either.'

What did that mean? The archer didn't like her at all, and they had yet to have a conversation, full conversation that went further than a greeting, where they didn't yell at each other or call each other names. The archer always seemed so tense, so angry around her, that she never even considered that he didn't hate her. As far as she was concerned, she had always been the innocent, naïve, slightly spoiled girl who arrived out of nowhere, and stepped on his hard earned territory.

Keeping him away from one of his closest friends, making herself the first and only judge of what Phil could and couldn't do, pushing him away when he had had more of a right to see Phil than she did. She knew it was the right thing, Barton's self-pity and self-hatred wouldn't have helped Coulson in any way, but that didn't change the fact that had earned the place beside Phil's bed.

Darcy didn't even want to know how she would have reacted if someone did to her what she did to Barton. Kept her from seeing Jane if the scientist had been grievously harmed. She would have resented the other person. Deeply. Resented them for being right. When she was wrong. For taking care of her friend better than she could.

But she would have grateful that that other person had been there, had done what she couldn't have. What she would have liked to do, but couldn't. And that was where Natasha stood. Why wasn't Barton with her? Was he so emotionally immature that he couldn't get over the dislike of someone who denied him something? Or was something else weighing on him?

Darcy groaned and turned around, stuffing her face into the pillow to muffle her frustrated scream. And men dared to say women were complicated. She had no idea how to approach things with Barton and they would have to deal with each other for an entire evening tomorrow. Because she was definitely going now. She was pretty sure Natasha would have no qualms putting Phil on her case if it took that to make her bend.

After a few minutes, she sighed in the fabric, and pulled herself upright once more. She had just realized that the alarm that informed her that Phil was done with his tests was lit.

She calmly walked to the Agent's room. When she got there, Phil was sitting in his chair, working on something on his pad.

"What are you working on? Everyone thinks you're dead."

He didn't even look up to answer.

"I'm looking over Sitwell's and Hill's reports. You are welcome to join me."

She chuckled. Since she would become his assistant once he was declared alive once more, he had taken to introducing her to the inner workings of S.H.I.E.L.D. bit by bit. She smiled, and dropped down on the chair beside him.

"Sure thing, boss. Oh, just so you know, me, you, Natasha and Barton are going out tomorrow night."

There was a slight pause, and Phil took his eyes from his tablet to look at her.

"I beg your pardon?"

OOOOOOOOO

The day after, Darcy was fidgeting in her room, two steps away from climbing in the drapes. This was a bad idea. It was an horrible idea. She really shouldn't go. Really, she upset Barton enough, she should let him have time alone with his old buddies. He didn't want her there. This would end badly, she could feel it from here.

"Natasha told me if you don't come by yourself, she will come get you herself."

She turned around and smiled at Phil. He was wearing a suit for the first time since he was hospitalized, looking crisp and sharp.

"Hey boss!"

He cocked his head, frowning slightly at her jumpy state.

"Darcy-"

She cut him off, her mouth running away from her. Out of her control as usual.

"Don't worry, Phil, I'll play nice with Barton. I'll be nice, and I'll look mature. I won't shame you, or the others. You can pretend I'm Natasha's younger, annoying sister-"

"Darcy."

She stopped, hanging on Phil's word.

"I was simply going to tell you to relax. We're not going to bite you."

She nodded, wringing her hands. She realized she was still nodding, and she forced herself to stop. She gave the agent a slightly manic look.

"Are you sure-"

Coulson sighed, and rolled his eyes. He put a light hand on her shoulder, leading her away from her room.

"Yes, Darcy. We are all sure we want you to come along. Now quit stalling."

Darcy opened her mouth, and Coulson cut her a stern glance from the corner of his eye.

"Don't mention Barton. You are both adults and I trust you to act accordingly."

Darcy started nodding again, and had to forcefully stop herself. It was getting ridiculous, but really, before yesterday, she thought one of the people attending the dinner was out for her skin. So sue her for being a bit anxious about it all.

And she still wasn't sure where she stood with Barton. They were both adults. Even Coulson said so.

Barton and Natasha were waiting in the living room. She was wearing black skinny pants and a pretty salmon top, and she made Darcy feel way under dressed, despite wearing a pretty black skirt and a simple red blouse herself. Barton was wearing dark, clean blue jeans and a light green button down shirt. Darcy did her best not to stare, because he looked _good. _It was the first time she'd seen him out of his usual sweat pants/old jeans look and it definitely suited him. Denim shouldn't be allowed to hug a backside like that. It just wasn't fair. The only compromise the attire did for her sanity was to hide Barton's arms.

It just wasn't fair they had to meet like they had. She would have pounced him long ago otherwise. She caught Natasha's eyes, and was pretty sure the slight twitch of her lips was an amused one.

She forced herself to look away and lug her mind out of the gutter. She was adult, professional and mature. She could go through one evening without acting like a bitch or a slut.

They all climbed into the car, Clint driving and Natasha in the passenger seat. Phil gave Darcy a bemused look, and the young woman didn't kid herself that her boss didn't notice her slip earlier. Really, couldn't she appreciate the aesthetic quality of a man who clearly put a lot of work on bringing his body to the very best?

It was a very pure and innocent appreciation... Really. Sigh. Who was she trying to fool?

The restaurant was small, a little more than a hole in the wall, and the cook smiled and bustled around, clearly relieved to see three of his most faithful clients again. He did shoot a few curious glances at Darcy, but never enquired about her, taking it in stride. Darcy was infinitely grateful for that. She already felt out of place as it was.

Coulson kept shooting her reassuring glances. Both Clint and Natasha were silent, but the servers considered that normal, making jokes about stoic agents who saved the world by staring wordlessly at bad guys.

Darcy giggled happily and thawed slowly, letting herself relax. At some point Coulson squeezed her knee with a proud crinkle around his eyes and Darcy couldn't help but beam back. Barton broke the moment by choking on his bite.

She smiled sweetly at him.

"Are you alright, fledgling? Do you need to a burping?"

Coulson's eyes crinkled again. Barton mock glared at her.

"Hilarious, Cayenne."

She smirked at him, and took another bite. He looked away, elbowing Natasha and whispering something to her. Darcy looked at Phil.

"It's nice."

He nodded, and smiled at her.

"I'm glad you're here. They do that pretty often."

He gestured to Natasha and Clint. Darcy dropped her voice to a whisper and leaned over.

"And you're sure they're not together."

He smiled at her, and she was pretty sure there was something hidden in his eyes this time.

"No, thank God. I would pity the poor soul who would have to babysit that little monster."

Darcy giggled, and Barton's attention snapped back to her. She ignored that, and went back to her meal.

She felt everyone's eyes on her, and she did her best to ignore it.

"Hey, Lewis?"

She looked up to give an answering arched eyebrow to Barton.

"Why did you accept this job?"

She shrugged an answer, even though she knew both Phil and Natasha's interest had definitely been spiked by the question.

"I was bored, I always had great times with Phil, and it was a better job than I ever thought I could get."

Barton gave her a smirk.

"Even if you were clearly under qualified?"

Darcy bristled, but forced herself to stay down. Phil trusted her to act like an adult and be mature. So she took a big breathe.

"I don't think any with a degree in Political Science is too under qualified to read books to a coma patient."

Phil was giving a stern look to Barton, hoping to stop the next remark. Unfortunately, apparently not even Coulson's stare could keep Barton from being Barton.

"Under qualified to be dealing with the Avengers."

She clenched her fists, and Coulson put a calming hand on her's. She was pretty sure it would turn into a restraining hold if it needed to.

"I think you've already made your opinion about my presence here known."

Barton went to reply, but Natasha elbowed him so hard in the ribs he bent in two, chocking. Darcy sent her a grateful look, before cleaning up her plate.

The rest of the evening passed pretty uneventfully. Barton stayed mostly quiet, throwing resentful looks at Natasha.

Phil followed her until they reached his room.

"I'm sorry Darcy. I'd hope Barton had aged over pigtail-pulling."

He slipped into his room before Darcy had the time to puzzle what the statement meant.

"What does that even mean?"

But the closed door gave her no answer. She sighed, starting hitting her head against it.

She would never understand men.


	7. Chapter 7

After the evening at the restaurant, Darcy's relationship with Barton stayed as strained as it ever was. The only difference was that everyone else kept throwing amused and knowing looks at the both of them, especially when they started arguing over something stupid like the relevancy of the new stop sign at the corner of the street. Darcy usually ignored them, a bit upset that she apparently hadn't been able to escape high school. Seriously, she lived in a classroom full of eleven year old girls who imagined things that weren't there.

Where was Jane when she needed her? Oh, right, at the other side of the country, star gazing. Why couldn't she have someone in her corner, to listen to her woes and give crappy but heartwarming advice?

Seriously. She and Barton just didn't get along. He didn't like her, for some reason she had yet to discover, but hell if she was going to let him walk all over her. Most of their interactions resulted in arguing and were usually stopped by either a warning look from Coulson to Darcy or a well aimed elbow into Barton's ribs courtesy of Natasha.

But what distressed Darcy the most was the even Bruce gave her the looks. That Phil and Natasha were imagining something that wasn't there was possible, and she always knew that secret agents were the worst gossips in the world. Phil dragged Pepper in his madness and Tony was a shark for everything that could annoy people. If it gave him a reason to act like the immature child he was, all the better.

But Bruce was always very careful, keeping himself away from any possible conflicts and being as respectful of the others as he could. And yet, he took part in this madness, sticking around to hear her and Barton bellow at each other. He didn't even want to hear Pepper scold Tony.

Darcy couldn't help but think maybe she was missing a piece to this puzzle. Not that anyone was helping her out. Look at her with this damned knowing look, sure. Telling her why they did though was just too much effort. Phil always arched an eyebrow at her and pretended to be absorbed by his work.

The only upside was that Barton seemed as annoyed by it as her, and spent most of his time not spent yelling at her giving the stink eye to Natasha.

Darcy was also glad that the spy wasn't promising her imminent death anymore. She was even happier that the red head was helping her get in shape. Darcy never felt so good in her life. When she wasn't hurting in parts of her body she wasn't even aware could hurt. But it felt good anyway, and she had a lot of fun learning self defense.

She was pretty happy. Coulson was able to do pretty much everything he wanted to do, and was getting ready for his official return. Fury came by twice to settle some things with his best agent, much to Tony's displeasure.

In fact, Darcy was pretty sure the director hadn't needed to come the second time, but did it only to see the billionaire hiss at him like an angry snake again and flee to his lab while ducking for cover.

Neither Bruce, Clint nor Pepper were very fond of the Director at the moment, but they had enough of a sense of self-preservation not to act upon that feeling. They politely ignored him and went along with their lives, taking just enough time to either laugh or shake their heads at Tony's antics.

Darcy was reading one morning, determined to enjoy the few quiet days remaining before she became the assistant of a newly not dead Super Agent. She was forbidden from put Agent Taves on toilet cleaning duty for causing her mental distress. She wasn't forbidden from doing the same to the Other Agent, for the simple reason she had no idea who the Hell he was, and it would be an enormous waste of time to go through the entirety of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s personal files to recognize him based on his picture.

Her boss seemed keen on forbidding any sources of potential entertainment. She was pretty sure she could convince Tony to bypass that, if simply to annoy the other agent.

The billionaire had started that again a few weeks back, when he was sure the agent wasn't going to faint, or anything in response to the irritation. Coulson seemed at the same time exasperated at the genius's efforts, and relieved their relationship had gone back to normal. Having a nice and considerate Tony seemed to freak Phil out more than anything else in their mad house.

She could hear Phil doing something in the kitchen, and whatever it was, it smelled good. This experience had revealed the agent could cook, which brought of the number of people admitted in the kitchen to a grand total of three.

Bruce and Tony were of course in the lab, and no one was to enter under pain of death via very painful explosions. There wasn't anyone in the place stupid enough to go against that order, but pretty much everyone was concerned whether it was a good thing for Bruce to be somewhere that could blow up at any time, if Tony's track record was to be trusted.

Pepper was out of the country and Barton was off exploring one air duct or another. He was maybe even watching her at the moment, but Darcy had learned not to let something so trivial bother her. Barton was a sniper, and from what Coulson told her, that always equaled a marked tendency to stalk others.

He usually loved watching people. And jumping on them when they least expected it.

That was annoying. He loved to do that to Darcy. And Pepper. Because they were the only ones in the place who didn't have any special freaky senses, a super computer to warn them, or the displeasing habit of turning mean and green when angry. Mostly, he targeted Darcy because she squeaked, flailed, and potentially threw harmless objects at him. Pepper always gave him an ear-splitting scream and tried to stab his feet with her heels.

Somehow, that convinced him not to do it anymore. That and Stark's death glare. No one messes with Stark's girlfriend except Stark himself. And Stark loved to mess with his girlfriend.

It was his favorite pastime, right after building potentially world threatening robots.

No one would ever pretend Tony Stark wasn't a complicated bastard.

Darcy took her iPod to switch songs, when she heard a loud crash upstairs. She jumped to her feet, and didn't turn when she heard Coulson draw his gun. No one was upstairs, as far as she was aware. In fact, the only one whose location she didn't know was Barton, and- There was Barton. The archer slid gracefully to the floor from the air vent in the ceiling, drawing his gun as well. Darcy stayed behind the both of them, silent and unmoving. They shared a brief look, and Coulson jerked his head forward, gesturing for Hawkeye to go first. Darcy saw the exact moment they went from Barton and Phil to Hawkeye and Agent Coulson. It was slightly disconcerting, even though she had already seen both of them in action.

Hawkeye disappeared up the stairs while Coulson stared at them without saying a word, tense and ready for whatever might come their way. Darcy tried to fight her guilt, knowing that if she wasn't there, Coulson would have gone with Barton, but also knowing that they all knew the risk of bringing a civilian in when she arrived.

Tony climbed up the stairs, appearing with only his Iron Man helmet and his gauntlet.

"Is everyone alright here?"

His voice rang out, distorted by the helmet's speaker. Coulson nodded, still focused on the stairs. Darcy was nearly afraid they would burst out in flames by the simple intensity of the look. He spoke through his teeth.

"Fine. Hawkeye went."

Tony's head snapped to the stairs, and Darcy could almost see his concern frown under the metal. Tony was lucky for his mask, otherwise his bastard reputation would be in danger. They heard a muffle curse, and Natasha came running from the hallway leading to the bedrooms. She was wearing worn out sweat pants and a black tank top. They all stared at her, as she paused to take her guns out and prowl toward the stairs. Tony was the one to voice the question they were all asking themselves.

"Were you sleeping? As in sleeping here?"

The Widow didn't even dignify the question with a look, and started climbing the stairs. Tony followed her.

"Seriously, how come you're sleeping here and I don't know? How long as that been going on? Are you living here? Because- Okay, okay, I'll shut up now."

Darcy shot a look at Coulson but that did nothing to reassure her. The agent was so closed up, she was pretty sure a nuclear bomb could explode two blocks away, and he wouldn't even twitch. Darcy focused on not panicking. After all, it was nothing more than a very loud sound. It could have been one of Tony's pet robots knocking something over, again.

There was no sound to be heard over head, no babble from Tony, nor bullet sounds from The Widow or Hawkeye, nor the sounds of a struggle. It was dead silent. Darcy could picture Bruce, standing still in the lab, hoping with all his being that whatever was upstairs wouldn't come and look for trouble. That he wouldn't have to let the Hulk out in the Tower a second time.

That he wouldn't have to smash down his friend's effort to give him a place to stay. Darcy knew that if that happened, it would take all of them to restrain him and keep him from leaving once again.

But that was a problem for another time. Now was the time to see if Darcy would have a reason to laugh about the bunch of them because they over reacted. Coulson waited. They breathed, and she realized she unconsciously synced her inhale and exhale to his. It was calming, in a way.

Suddenly, they heard another loud crash, and a bellowed curse. Coulson's shoulders tensed a fraction, but his hands stayed steady. They heard the whine of Iron Man's repuslor, and some other noises of destruction. Suddenly, another one crash, growing closer to them. The sound of a body falling down the stairs. Finally, Natasha appeared, having been thrown so hard she actually bounced on the last step and crashed into the wall.

She had to be thrown, no one could simply slip down the stairs and land that hard at that angle. Darcy took a step forward, but Coulson twitched to the side, stopping her. He shook his head a tiny bit, just enough for her to see.

She nodded, and backed out from the same step she just took. As if on cue, Natasha flipped herself upright. She had small cut on her forehead, but seemed otherwise fine. She slowly backed away from the stairs, pulling out another gun.

They all heard a mad cackle from over head, and loud steps in the stairs. Something, wearing green metallic armor appeared, carrying a struggling Hawkeye. When he saw them, he tossed the archer to the other side of the room. The thing cocked his head to one side. And to the other.

"Well. I don't know these two."

Coulson spoke, voice completely blank, steady and in control.

"Who are you and why did you come here?"

It chuckled, and went to approach them. The Widow pointed her gun straight between his eyes. He stopped, raising his hands into a 'I surrender gesture'. He even did the typical Vulcan gesture with his fingers.

"I come in peace."

His voice was distorted the same way Tony's was when he was wearing his armor. Neither Coulson and Natasha answered to his 'joke'. The Senior Agent asked again.

"Who are you, and why did you come here?"

The thing sighed dramatically.

"Fame is a fickle friend. You 'die' once, and no one recognizes you anymore. I am the Green Goblin."

He paused, waiting for applause. Darcy could practically hear JARVIS starting to look everywhere for all the information he could gather on the Green Goblin. Coulson didn't react, instead he pressed on.

"Why did you come here?"

The Goblin cackled, and started rocking on his heels.

"Ah, testy are we, _sir_? I'm here because all anyone seems to talk about at the moment is the Avengers. 'Avengers are formidable!' 'Avengers will save us all!' 'No one can defeat the Avengers!' I just came here to see whether the rumors were true. It would be so terrible for these poor people too loose their heroes now!"

Coulson seemed to be debating what he should do with the man. JARVIS chose this moment to pipe in.

"Sir, the Green Goblin was active a few years back, in New York. He disappeared after a creating quite a bit of mischief, and seemed to have been defeated by the vigilante called Spider-Man."

The armor did a weird little spasm, that Darcy chose to interpret as a shiver.

"That little punk. I'll go after him later. Now, I just need to get rid of you guys."

He looked back to Darcy and Coulson.

"But I would like to know who the both of you are…"

Darcy swallowed. She wasn't used to mad men targeting her. She was glad Coulson was there, because she was pretty sure she would be a sobbing mess by now without him. Neither of them were Avengers, and the guy seemed to have taken Tony down. Hawkeye was alive simply because he chose to let him live, and Natasha, the ninja that she was, couldn't tear down metallic armor. Darcy concentrated on breathing, letting the others deal with the situation. The best she could do was to make sure she wasn't in their way. Coulson spoke in a cold, matter of fact, clipped tone.

"I am Agent Coulson, Senior Agent from the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistic Division. I would ask you to stand down, and surrender to our agents."

The thing chuckled again, shaking its head.

"No can do, G-Man. I'm having too much fun."

Coulson's jaw tightened infinitesimally, in a way only someone who knew him could have noticed.

"Cayenne. Go to the lab."

She nodded, grateful he didn't used her real name, and slowly started walking toward the second entrance to the lab. She hadn't taken two steps back when the thing raised an arm, and shot something two inches away from her. Close enough that she felt the breeze of air when it went past her. She froze on the spot. The Widow fired as well, aiming for the same place as him, her bullet an inch away from his face. Hawkeye, who had managed to pull himself upright as well, growled like a feral animal. Coulson twitched a bit harder.

He was pissed. Darcy could see that much. The Goblin was talking again.

"Don't be rude, I haven't been introduced to the lovely lady yet."

The Widow talked this time.

"Don't make this harder than necessary. There is only one possible end to a fight here, and I assure you it wouldn't be in your favor. Stand down."

He threw his head back and laughed.

"You take for granted that you can affect me in any way, Black Widow. I almost crushed a spider, once. And he was far more lethal than you will ever be. Today, I will crush one for good."

He leapt forward. The spy fired immediately, but the bullets bounced off him like pebbles on a brick wall. He swatted her away with one arm, grabbing and crushing her gun with the other one. She crashed against the wall with a sickening noise. She tried to stand only to stumble down once more. Barton tried to follow suit, but his legs weren't cooperative, and he collapsed after two steps. Phil received a blow to the face, and was thrown away as well. Suddenly, Darcy went from three highly trained professional agents, to being alone with the thing that defeated them.

The thing chuckled, and grabbed her arm, pressing her flush against him. Darcy ignored the very displeasing sensation of being pressed to metal, and focused on breathing. A panic attack would be stupid. Really stupid. And totally useless.

"So, pretty thing. Who are you?"

She swallowed. Breathe, Darcy breathe.

"No one. I'm no one important."

He cocked his head.

"Really? And what is No One Important doing in Tony Stark's private floors?"

Oh shit. Breathe Darcy. Don't panic.

"I'm the cleaning lady. I come every few days to keep the place livable!"

She thought it was believable, but he obviously didn't buy it. He chuckled, shaking his head.

"Lying is such an ugly thing."

He tightened his grip around her arm. She howled. The pain shot through her body, and her knees buckled under her. The only thing keeping her upright was him. He released her after a few seconds, and Darcy could breathe again. And she kept herself from vomiting. She regained her footing, but refused to look up at him. He shook her lightly, trying to get her to listen to him.

"Who are you? Tony Stark would never hire someone to clean _his _things; he's far too paranoid for that. So why are you here?"

Darcy shook her head, refusing to answer. She wouldn't bow to that maniac. She would hold on until someone came to help her. Surely JARVIS had told someone what was going on. The thing continued talking, looking perfectly at ease.

"You must be someone's sweetheart, are you, pretty thing? To the old man? He seemed to like you, didn't he? I'd think he's a bit too old for you, but I heard gold digging is very popular amongst the young ladies…"

Darcy bristled at the implications. She would never do that, and she was always repulsed by the girls she knew whose sole purpose had been to marry a rich man. Call her naïve if you want- and many people did- but she still believed in love. The Goblin watched her closely.

"Not the Agent? The woman, then? She looks like she could appreciate a young, pretty toy like you. She must be a real beast in bed, is she not."

Darcy closed her eyes, trying to ignore the guy. He was trying to guess her ties to use her against the team. She wasn't going to give him that. She would be more sonic than Coulson. She was a tree. She was a rock.

He sadly wasn't done.

"No, not the woman. She would need something a bit stronger to give her a ride for her money. Mister Stark is already taken, and I don't think the doctor hiding downstairs would be very inclined toward such activities, which leaves us with the archer…"

Darcy's head snapped up against her will, and she hissed to the thing.

"What's your point?"

It cackled.

"It is the archer, isn't it sweetheart? Yes, the tough, scruffy look is always a winner. Poor little Hawk. He'll have to watch his girlfriend suffer."

The Goblin squeezed her upper arm once more, and the pain shot through her once more. Darcy tried muffle her screams, but she was pretty sure she failed miserably. When he finally let go, she saw Barton standing behind the Goblin's armored shoulder, helping himself with the back of the couch, his face blank. They shared a brief look. Darcy would have to distract the madman until Barton was ready to act.

"I'm not his girlfriend."

The Goblin shook its head, and Darcy could only imagine his smirk behind the mask. If it was human. Darcy wasn't sure yet.

"You can't lie to me, gorgeous. It's useless."

Darcy tried to wriggle herself out of its hold, but the grip on her arm was too strong and he tightened it a bit in retaliation. Darcy grunted, but managed to keep herself from screaming. She saw a flash of pain shoot through Barton's face.

She really hoped help was on the way, because she doubted her and the archer would be able to restrain the thing too long.

"I'm no one. I know nothing. Please let me go."

The Goblin cackled again.

"Oh no, pretty thing. You're going to die. Don't worry, I won't make your boyfriend suffer more than necessary. He'll be right behind you."

The Goblin took her arm, and threw her through the window next to her. The first thing Darcy registered was the air knocked out of her lungs by the impact. The second was Clint's distant furious scream. The third was that she was falling. The Goblin had managed to toss her with enough strength to shatter the glass, and she was getting nearer and nearer to the ground.

She closed her eyes, since she wasn't all that found to see her death coming at her. And suddenly she wasn't falling anymore. Something very hard and rigid had caught her, and she would have bruises tomorrow.

Technically, she would be a giant, walking bruise tomorrow.

But she opened her eyes to identify her savior, and came face to face with Iron Man's mask. Tony had apparently managed to slip in his armor, and was about to come in through the windows when she appeared.

She sighed, and relaxed a bit. The robotic voice didn't even startled her this time around.

"Are you alright?"

She nodded, and he lowered himself, carrying her bridal style.

"Yeah, I'm fine. You've got to help Hawkeye. He was alone with the Goblin."

Iron Man nodded, and shattered a window with one of his repulsors.

"I'm going, but you stay here, no matter what."

Darcy nodded, and Iron Man took off again. Darcy slumped on the wall, until she heard a mad cackle again. She tensed, and waited.

Suddenly, a roar pierced above all the other noises, and everyone shut up.

Apparently the Hulk decided to come out to play. Darcy doubted the Goblin had thought that far ahead. Surely he didn't think he had a chance again the Hulk. The thing defeated a god!

There were smashing noises again as the Hulk made its way to the floor the Goblin occupied. Darcy was panting.

Don't panic.

Panic is useless.

Panic would get her killed.

"Hey, are you alright?"

Darcy spun around, going for her Taser, remembering too late that Tony hated them and confiscated hers and Coulson's a while back.

Captain America was there, in costume, frowning at her.

"JARVIS told me you had been injured by the guy upstairs."

She nodded frantically.

"Yeah, don't worry, I'm fine."

He took a step toward her, but she shook her head.

"NO! No, I'm fine. Go help the others. They are in trouble. They need your help."

He hesitated again, and Darcy was starting to get annoyed.

"GO! I'm fine! Go help Bar-them."

The Captain pursed his lips once more but nodded in the end.

"Fine. But if you're hurt, I'm syncing Coulson and Barton on you."

She nodded once more, and he disappeared up the stairs. Poor guy, not used to taking the elevators yet. Though, in this situation, the elevators probably weren't the best option.

Darcy forced herself to take a deep breath.

And to ignore the noises coming from upstairs. It was pretty useless.

The Avengers would never be renowned for their discretion.

She could hear Hulk's grunts and growls. She could hear the sound of Tony's repulsors. She could even hear the clunk of Captain America's shield when it hit the armor of the Goblin.

But she couldn't hear anything that would indicate Barton, Coulson or the Widow were alive.

She tried not to let it get to her.

The living room, though far too big for a living room, was a pretty small place to hold a fight between two armored men, a super soldier and the Hulk. The three of them must simply have gone somewhere less cramped, as to not being in the other's way.

That must be it.

Darcy refused to think of the way Romanov had crashed against the wall, or the way Coulson had been swatted aside like a bothersome fly.

She refused to think that Hawkeye had been alone with the Goblin for a good thirty seconds before Tony got there to help him.

Darcy was more than happy to be in denial for the moment.

No point in freaking out before being faced with the facts.

Freaking out was a bad idea anyway.

Like panic attacks.

Panicking was useless.

She had to breathe.

She swiped her clammy hands on her pants, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

After an eternity -or two minutes, she wasn't sure- she spoke up.

"JARVIS?"

There was a slight pause.

"Yes, Miss Lewis?"

She sighed in relief, and sank a little bit more against the wall.

"Hey, do you know everyone's condition?"

There was a pause again. In any other circumstance, Darcy would have been proud to have asked a question to the AI that took him more than a fraction of second to process.

Right now, it simply worried her. It meant that the answer wasn't obvious.

"Mister Stark is sound, though the suit is a little damaged. Dr. Banner is doing fine, but he doesn't seem to appreciate the Green Goblin attacking his home. Captain Rogers has a scrape on the arm, but is otherwise doing fine."

Darcy kept herself from snapping at him for not informing her about the three people she was the most worried about.

"Agent Romanov regained her balance a little while ago, and managed to get herself and agent Coulson out of the direct line of fire. Agent Coulson seems to be in pain due to his previous injuries, but doesn't appear to have been injured further."

She really couldn't help it this time.

"And Hawkeye?"

JARVIS paused again.

"Agent Barton has fallen into one of my blind spots, and doesn't appear to be moving. I am afraid I cannot tell you his physical status."

Darcy forced herself to breath, and nodded. Don't panic. Don't panic. JARVIS spoke again, in a reassuring tone. Darcy didn't even know computes could be reassuring.

"However, I can still see his thermo energetic signature."

Darcy forced herself to swallow, and talk through the lump in her throat.

"So?"

JARVIS didn't hesitate in his answer this time.

"So Agent Barton is still alive."

Darcy sighed little bit in relief.

"Why isn't he moving?"

"He may be unconscious. Gravely injured. Or he may simply not wish to draw attention to himself. I can assure you he is still alive."

She nodded and once again found she couldn't stop. She probably should get that checked, but it was the least of her worries at the moment.

"Thanks, JARVIS. You're the best."

"You are welcome, Miss Lewis. I assure you that Dr. Banner, Mister Stark and Captain Rogers seem to have the situation under control."

She continued nodding and carefully got to her feet. She started to pace, anxious about the whole ordeal.

Barton better not die today. She swore to herself if he survived, she would be the sweetest thing in the world to him.

Right after she hit him for scaring her like that.

Just because she didn't like the guy didn't mean she wanted him to suffer. And die.

She didn't like the guy. She really didn't.

She would have near panic attack for anyone. The Goblin _was _terrifying.

She didn't like Barton.

She didn't-

Oh God, she did. Fuck, why did she have this kind of an epiphany in the middle of a war zone? When the guy she just realized she liked is possibly dying?

She was so screwed either way.

She liked Barton.

Why was _she _always the imbecile, naïve, innocent one to stupidly like a guy that didn't like her back?

Why did she-

The ceiling exploded, and Darcy was thrown back hitting the wall roughly. The air was once more knocked out of her lungs, and she turned to rise on all fours, coughing through the thick dust cloud.

The dirt finally settled down, and Darcy saw the Goblin was already on his feet, looking around. She saw him two seconds before he saw her.

When he did, he froze.

"You! So they managed to save you. Well, this time, you won't be that lucky."

He went to run to her, but he was tackled by the Captain, who had jumped through the hole behind him.

They rolled on the floor, and exchanger rough blows. At this distance, the Goblin's weapons weren't much of an advantage, and the Captain's extraordinary strength seemed to balance the intruder's mechanical one. Darcy backed slowly away, staying low and doing her best to be forgotten.

The Hulk was over head, roaring, but the hole was too small and Darcy heard Natasha explaining that if he enlarged it, he risked hurting Darcy. Somehow, that seemed to be a good argument to him and he stayed up above, grumbling.

Tony appeared, lowering himself cautiously through the hole while eying the two men still on the floor, limbs tangled and moving. He couldn't risk attacking without potentially hurting the Captain.

So they waited. Darcy forced herself to breath.

Panicking would be useless. Panicking would get the others in trouble.

Suddenly, in a green metallic flash, the Goblin managed to kick to Captain America off him. The poor man was sent flying, square into Tony. The two Avengers were knocked down, touching the ground in a mess of metal and spandex, groaning loudly. The Goblin didn't waste his time, and targeted with his arm.

Time slowed.

Iron Man and the Captain did their best to free themselves to come help her. But they were working against each other more than with.

The Black Widow shouted something in Russian, trying to draw the Goblin's attention to her.

The Hulk bellowed, and proceeded to tear the floor apart anyway. No one stopped him. By the time he got to her, she would probably be dead anyway.

Darcy forced her eyes to stay open this time. She wanted the Goblin to see her looking at him.

She would be strong.

He didn't need to know she wasn't able to breathe anymore.

That her hands were so sweaty she could probably fill a pool with them.

That she was definitely having a panic attack now.

She didn't want to die. Not that it changed a lot to her current situation.

She looked him in the eyes of his mask.

"Hasta la vista, Baby."

Darcy sighed. And heard a faint sound, a brush of wind.

She saw the arrow stick to the Goblin's shoulder.

She saw the red light flashing on it.

She smiled.

She wouldn't go down alone.

The arrow exploded. The last thing she saw was the ceiling collapsing on top of her. The last thing she heard was someone howling her name.

"DARCY!"


	8. Chapter 8

Darcy woke up with a groan. Everything hurt. It was even worse than her work out sessions with Natasha. Even her internal organs hurt, like someone ripped her open and sewed her back.

She hoped they sewed her back. She didn't care to walk around for the rest of her life with her intestines dangling from her belly.

She didn't realize she was talking out loud until someone spoke. She hadn't realized she wasn't alone either.

"Man, they put her on the good drugs. I want some of that as well!"

She heard a slap, and a groan. You shouldn't hit hawks. Hawks were nice. Hawks were beautiful. She liked hawks. And judging from the silence in the room, she was talking aloud again. She probably should be embarrassed, but she was more focused on opening her eyes at the moment. She didn't succeed. She was starting to get nervous now. She didn't like not being able to see what was around her. She was a visual person. She needed to see. She needed to know who else was there.

A calming hand landed on her upper arm carefully. She jumped a bit, not expecting it. She was blind! She needed some warning, people! Not the time for your ninja tricks!

"It's alright Darcy. Everything is fine."

She relaxed a bit. It was Coulson. Coulson was good. She trusted Coulson. She liked Coulson. She nodded, before willing her throat to work with her. And as much as her voice appeared willing to work when she didn't want to, it seemed to be less than cooperative when she needed it to.

"Eyes."

Coulson chuckled, and patted her arm reassuringly.

"Don't worry, the doctors said your sight would come back in time."

"I've heard that before."

"I don't know what you are going on about, Miss Lewis."

Darcy felt herself smirk, not entirely sure she gave her face the authorization to do so, but going with it nonetheless. At least her tongue wasn't hanging from her mouth. Well she didn't think it was. Was her tongue hanging from mouth?

"No, Darcy, your tongue is still in your mouth."

She nodded, reassured. Who was here? Barton. Barton was here. The Hawk was there. Did they have a nest for him? A hawk needs a nest, otherwise it's sad. A sad Hawk is sad. She was talking again. Damnit. Shut her up please.

There's got to be some duck tape somewhere in this place! She wanted duck tape.

"I can go get some!"

Another slap.

"No, you will not."

Natasha was there as well. Cool. She liked Natasha. Natasha hadn't been hurt too bad by the Goblin. She hated the Goblin. The Goblin had to go to arachnophobia therapy. He just hated spiders too much. And she was talking out loud again, wasn't she?

"Yeah, you are. Come on Tasha, let me get the duck tape!"

The slap was so hard it echoed through the room. Darcy winced in sympathy for the man. She simply hoped she switched spots soon, otherwise the poor man was in for a very nasty bruise in a few hours. And possibly a headache to boot.

"Ouch, woman! She wants someone to shut her up, I just want to help!"

The spy sighed, and Darcy could feel Coulson's silent laughter as it shook through her arm. She would have liked to see the archer's face, to see if it matched his haughty indignant tone.

"No really? Everyone knows you want to _'shut her up'. _I just don't think you want to do it with duck tape."

Barton didn't answer and huffed. Darcy's brain, once again refusing to cooperate, couldn't decide what that meant. Darcy could hear the smirk into the spy's voice, even though she knew nothing of it showed on Natasha's face.

"Would you like me and Phil to leave the two of you alone? _She likes hawks_."

He answered in a gruff voice, clearly aggravate.

"Fuck off, Nat."

To Darcy's surprise, Natasha giggled. Darcy couldn't keep up anymore. She talked, turning toward the spot she thought Phil to occupy.

"Phil?"

She sounded as confused as she felt. The Agent's hand moved from her arm to her forehead, pressing reassuringly. Darcy sighed, and leaned toward the touch. She fell back to when she got sick as a child, with her father staying with her to read her stories.

"It's okay, Darcy. Go to sleep."

She nodded, and curled up to sleep. They continued talking, but it blended down to a reassuring background noise.

OOOOOOOO

The next time she woke up, she was in even more pain. She took that as a sign they were taking her off the drugs. That and the fact she could actually understand her own reasoning. It felt good to make sense in her own head. She had long ago given up making sense outside of her mind. That was a lost cause.

The second thing she realized was that she could open her eyes. So she did. She stared at the ceiling for a while, pondering whether turning her head would hurt or not. She probably would have to try to make sure. It wasn't a thrilling perspective.

"Hey there."

Someone was with her. She risked a look. It hurt, but not too much. Bruce was in her room, with a tablet. At the moment he was looking at her, apparently questioning if she was conscious or not.

"Hey Bruce."

He smiled at her, and rolled his chair to sit nearer to her bed until he was just beside her waist. He smiled reassuringly.

"Are you feeling alright?"

She nodded, moving all her body parts, testing them. As far as she could tell, her legs and belly hurt the most. But she wasn't paralyzed. Good news, good news. She looked at Bruce.

"Yeah. What happened?"

The doctor shrugged.

"Clint blew up part of the building to keep the Goblin from hurting you."

She nodded. Yeah, being in the way of a crumbling Stark Tower would probably hurt. She looked at Bruce to check on his own condition. The doctor seemed tired, but fine physically.

"How long have I been under?"

He cocked his head to the side, pondering her question.

"About five days. This is the second time you've been awake."

She frowned, wracking her brain for all it was worth.

"It is? Oh wait, I think I remember something about Phil…"

Bruce nodded, and deposited his pad on the bed, starting to examine her.

"Yeah, it was yesterday. Clint, Natasha and Phil were here. Don't worry about not remembering that. You're on some pretty heavy pain killers. It'll mess up with your head for a while."

She nodded again and was thankful that she wasn't doing it uncontrollably anymore. She wasn't really happy about having her head messed up, but she would live with it. She jerked her head toward herself.

"How bad is it, doc?"

Bruce smiled gently at her, leaning back in his chair.

"Nothing too bad or life threatening. None of your internal organs were affected. One of your legs was cracked, and a few of your ribs as well. You have quite a bit of superficial damage, cuts and burns mostly. Most of them won't leave a scar, or are situated on your belly."

She smiled at him, and moved her legs to decide which one was maimed, and settled for the right one.

"Everyone's all right?"

He smiled a bit wider.

"Yeah. Natasha got a pretty nasty bump on the head, but she's fine now. Coulson twisted his ankle, the doctors want him to take it easy for a few days. Tony's perfectly fine, except an injured pride. He isn't forgiving himself for the guy's intrusion. He has been driving _JARVIS _up the wall, going on and on about upgrades. I didn't know an AI could get exasperated. Steve's okay, it took him about half a day to heal. He took off again, but he wishes you well."

She frowned.

"He's gone already?"

Bruce shrugged, a small smirk playing on his lips paired with an arched an eyebrow.

"He's afraid that if he sticks around for too long, Tony will lock him up here."

Darcy sighed, chuckling through it.

"Is it a good or a bad sign I can actually see Tony doing that? My life is weird."

Bruce chuckled, and patted her arm, sympathetic.

"It is. But you love it."

Darcy giggled and tried to ignore the lump in her throat, when Bruce didn't mention Cl—Barton in his enumeration. He said he was there yesterday, he had to be doing fine.

"I do…What about Barton?"

Bruce gave her a knowing look she was getting seriously fed up on receiving. YES! She liked Barton! Could they just fucking leave her alone? It wasn't as if he reciprocated it! She clenched her jaw, and braced herself for the answer.

"He's fine, Darcy. He just feels bad about causing you harm."

Darcy's eyebrows jumped up to her forehead and she started the straighten herself. It pulled something that shouldn't be pulled and she fell back in her bed with a small cry. He leaned forward, frowning. She waved a dismissive hand at him, taking a few deep breathes.

She swallowed, and spoke carefully.

"It's not his fault. He saved me."

Bruce shrugged, dropping himself heavily in his chair once more, arching an eyebrow and assessing her level of pain.

"I know that. You know that. Everyone knows that. Except Clint. Guilt isn't something you can control."

Darcy shut her mouth, not sure how to handle that particular emotional minefield. She nodded, and looked away, biting her lip. From the corner of her eye she saw Bruce's inquiring look. She shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Bruce. I didn't mean to…"

He shook his head, and squeezed her arm slowly.

"It's fine, Darcy. Don't worry. You should go back to sleep."

She nodded and melted in the sheets, letting herself go. She didn't realized how hard she had been clinging to consciousness until she stopped doing so. She was lulled to sleep by Bruce's calm and serene breathing. She curled into the mattress, sighing.

OOOOOOOO

The third time she resurfaced, she kept her eyes shut and mentally inspected her physical state. Everything seemed to still be in place, if still hurting a little. Maybe a bit more. Why couldn't they keep her on pain killers? Seriously, she deserved that.

"You can stop pretending, I know you're awake."

She kept herself from jumping at the sound of Tony's voice. Of course the billionaire wouldn't care about something as plebeian as giving a girl a warning. Injured girl lying over there, buddy! He sighed, irritating at the lack of response on her part.

"JARVIS is monitoring you, Cayenne. I know you're awake."

She didn't answer, simply for the fact that it annoyed the billionaire. He stood, and she heard his loud steps in the room until he dropped himself on the bed. He wriggled around, until he apparently found a comfortable position. Then he talked, in the tone of someone who is stating a fundamental truth, a life changing fact.

"Sometimes I wake up at night, and I tell myself 'Fuck I'm so happy not to be a raisin'."

Darcy couldn't help it. Really. How else was she supposed to answer to this? Her eyes popped open, and she stared at Tony in disbelief.

"WHAT?"

He cackled at her, typing away on his phone, not looking at her. He still had a smug look on his face when he finally looked up.

"Hey, sleeping beauty is awake."

Darcy frowned at him, and crossed her arms under her bosom, rejoicing in the way his eyes jumped to them before he forced himself to look back up, sticking out his tongue at her. She chuckled, and looked around.

"How come you're here?"

Tony shrugged, going back to his phone, as if he didn't have a care in the world, and as if he was there purely of his own free will.

"Your usual bodyguards needed some sleep, shower and food, so I offered to watch over their precious princess."

Darcy arched an eyebrow at him, unimpressed.

"You offered?" she paused, before smirking, "What have you done?"

His innocent look didn't fool her, and she waited.

"Why are you saying that?"

"Because the only thing that would convince you to lock yourself in a room with a comatose girl, that isn't your girlfriend, is the fact that you are hiding from said girlfriend. What have you done?"

He shrugged, as if it wasn't a big deal.

"It was an accident, I swear! I was upgrading the security, and I just _happened _to make a mistake and lock the _annoying _tenant on the twentieth floor out of their suit."

Darcy took a moment of reflection.

"Aren't the twentieth's tenants Senator Stern and his wife."

Tony cackled evilly.

"Maybe…"

Darcy rolled her eyes, giggling at the ceiling. That man was simply absurd.

"How in the hell is Pepper putting up with you?"

Tony sobered.

"I don't know."

Darcy decided she didn't want to touch that one either. She wasn't in a mood for a round of Billionaire Psychoanalysis. She just remembered an off-handed comment Tony made.

"What do you mean by body-guards?"

He waved a lax hand like he didn't care, but she could see he was relieved at the change of subject.

"The super-agents. You're lucky I pay my doctors well, otherwise none of them who have stuck around when they are here. Scary bunch, these ones. Even more lately. Please get up soon so they stop traumatizing my staff."

Darcy rolled her eyes at him.

"Like you treat them any better. And Coulson and Natasha won't touch them. It would demonstrate they have emotions. Don't worry."

Tony finally looked up from his phone. His judgmental eyebrow made Darcy uneasy. Bruce was one thing, but Tony Stark, that was something else entirely. Finally, he sighed, dropping his phone on the bed and leaned forward.

"I wasn't talking about them. I'm talking about Barton."

She rolled her eyes, and suffocated the burgeoning of hope in her chest.

"What about him?"

Tony pursed his lips.

"He threatened the nurse with a toy bow yesterday when she insinuated the scars wouldn't help you get too many male friends."

Darcy breathed. Not that the nurse was wrong, but she tried her best not to think about it. Or about Barton defending her.

"He's simply feeling bad. Guilty."

Tony rolled his eyes.

"Cayenne, everyone is blaming themselves, you shouldn't have been in the line of fire. But Barton isn't doing it for it. He-"

She interrupted it, not wanting to hear about whatever the billionaire had to say.

"Please, Tony, can we not talk about this? Please."

The genius pinched his lips, but nodded and went back to his phone, ignoring her. She was grateful. It was bad enough that she liked Barton when he didn't like her, but everyone seemed to be aware and trying to help something that couldn't be helped because it didn't exist.

Because, honestly, Barton said it himself. She didn't belong in his world. She wasn't good enough for that. She wasn't qualified. He only felt bad. He didn't like her when she took care of Coulson, he certainly wouldn't want to go out with her. She was nothing.

She never lied to the Goblin. She was simply a bit ashamed that it was so obvious she was interested that it took an intruder all of three minutes to notice it.

She was pathetic. But she wouldn't shame herself any further by going after him. She may be naïve, but she prided herself on not being stupid.

Hopefully, when Coulson fully recovered, she would be able to find her own flat and would see less of him. Everything would be fine.

Really.

She didn't notice she fell asleep. She only remembered that at some point Tony started stroking her ankle soothingly. She was glad.

She fell asleep, thinking that she lived a life where Tony Stark tried to give her dating advices and lulled her to sleep.

And Bruce was right. She loved it.

OOOOOOOO

There was more than one person in the room this time. The sound of their quiet voices guided her back to awareness. She smiled when she recognized Barton and Phil.

"Hey."

They fell silent at once, and she felt a warm hand on her arm once more. She opened her eyes, to smile at Phil, which seemed to smooth down the worry lines on his forehead.

"Darcy."

She looked up and down, taking in the rumpled suit, the pale face and the dark circles under his eyes.

"Elrond, you look like shit."

Barton arched an eyebrow before Phil had the chance to answer her.

"Elrond?"

Darcy gave him small, happy smile, preparing to blame the niceness on the drugs if the need arose.

"Yeah, because elves don't die. And they are badass. And they always know everything."

Phil sighed, and patted her hair.

"I guess that makes you Arwen, than."

Darcy rolled her eyes, and gave him an unimpressed look.

"Please. I can't really compare myself to Liv Tyler."

A strange look flashed through Barton's face.

"Sure you can."

She laughed self-deprecatingly. And shook her head. And gave him a tight smile.

"Of course I _can. _It's simply better for my self-esteem not to."

She didn't look at him anymore, and turned to Phil, stabbing him in the shoulder because she was still wary of his chest.

"You need to sleep."

Phil grimaced, and cocked his head. She knew what he was going to say. And she didn't want to hear it.

"Shut up. You're going to sleep."

"Darcy, I want to be here."

"Yeah, I've heard that one before. From me. And you know what you've answered me? I won't run away Darcy, and I won't die if you leave me for a few hours."

Phil grimaced and looked away, sharing a look with Barton. Which of course drew Darcy's eyes to the archer. His face was blank, and he followed the exchange with polite interest. When he realized they were expecting his input in the matter, he looked a bit lost, before choking slightly and answering.

"I agree with Lewis, boss. You look like shit."

Phil glared at him, before muttering something that Darcy didn't catch, but caused Clint to scowl at the older agent. He stood up, mock-glaring at Darcy.

"Since I'm no longer wanted, I'll leave."

Darcy pinched her lips.

"Come on, boss. You know I love you! But I'll love you better when I won't be afraid you'll collapse beside my bed. I'm not really in any shape to get you up."

He scowled at her, but patted her head nonetheless as he exited. He did throw Barton one look over his shoulder.

"Upset her, and I'll make your next week hell."

When he closed the door behind him, leaving them alone together, Barton slouched in his chair.

"Well, I've heard that one before."

Darcy gave him an empathetic look. Phil's threats were far more impressive than hers. Much more likely to actually happen. Barton didn't seem to be too anxious, though. He seemed awkward, out of place. Darcy pinched her lips, looking around, hoping for a script written somewhere, something she could say to Barton without it triggering a shouting match.

"You know, if you want to go do something else, I'm sure I can survive on my own for a few hours."

His lips thinned, apparently not ecstatic about that option. She ignored the squeeze in her chest. He doesn't _want _to be here, Darcy. Natasha or Phil probably threatened him not to leave her alone. Nothing more. Don't kid yourself Lewis. He was gazing at her, apparently trying to understand her.

Darcy was glad she wasn't the only one completely lost in this situation. He spoke, his voice hoarse, like he yelled a lot in the past few days.

"I'm fine with being here."

She lowered her eyes, staring at her hands. Hands were safe. She didn't have a crush on her hands. Not that she didn't like them. But not like that. They weren't infuriating, snarky, over confident archers. So they didn't stand a chance at the moment.

"Okay."

He shifted a bit, and she resisted looking at him, seeing his expression. What was he thinking?

"If you're fine with it…"

She nodded a bit too eagerly, looking back up, in his eyes.

"No, it's great. Really. I just don't want to be a bother."

He nodded as well, opening his mouth, and closing it again. He did it three times before settling on keeping it closed and not saying anything. Darcy took the time to admire his mouth. And his eyes.

His eyes were magnificent. And she was forbidding herself to look at his arms. That way lead to madness. She felt like a eleven years old with her first crush. She was pathetic. Really. But this seemed as unattainable as when she pined for her physical education teacher back then.

It took a few minutes for him to talk again, looking over her.

"I do you feel?"

She bit her lower lip, and shrugged.

"Honestly? Horrible."

She chose not to lie, sure the man would notice it anyway. And there was no point. She wasn't ashamed of being hurt. He looked slightly distressed.

"Darcy, I'm sor-"

"Shut up!"

He looked surprised at her outburst, and he surprisingly listened to her.

"If it wasn't for you, I'd be dead by now." She ignored the way his jaw clenched. "You saved my life, you have no reason whatsoever to feel guilty, or apologize to me."

He shook his head, staring at his hands.

"I could have done it differently. I should have stopped him before he ever got down. Before he saw you. Or when he was farther from you."

"Barton. Look at me."

He raised his eyes automatically, looking like a young child looking for a life line.

"It's not your fault. The Goblin chose to attack. It's his fault, not yours."

The archer shook his head, but Darcy didn't give him the time to talk.

"If anything, it's less your fault than anybody else's. With the number of times you told me I shouldn't be here, well, it looks like you were right. I've got nothing to do here."

She wasn't saying in with self-pity. Simply stating facts. It was as simple as that.

"Don't."

She looked at him, confused.

"What?"

"Don't say that. It's not true."

Darcy was definitely out of the loop now.

"You've said it yourself."

He cried out.

"Yeah, well, I'm an idiot. I thought you knew that by now!"

Darcy tried to make some sense of the situation.

"Barton, what are you talking about?"

He opened his mouth, searching for words desperately and not finding them. He tried, and tried, and when he finally looked like he found them, someone knocked on the door. The archer jumped to his feet like a nervous animal.

Natasha popped her head in, giving the both of them a measuring look.

"Uh, Phil wanted me to make sure everything was fine."

Barton stayed there, mouth closed, jaw clenched. He looked alternately between Darcy and Natasha. The two women looked at him, waiting for his reaction.

After a few seconds, he growled and leapt for the door, pushing past Natasha. It was a good thing the spy stepped aside, because Darcy wasn't entirely convinced the archer wouldn't have tried to barrel his way through her.

Darcy stared after him, a lump in her throat. Was her company so unbearable that he fled at the first opening he got? She thought she had been nice today. Didn't try to get a rise out of him.

She looked at Natasha, whispering, not trusting herself to speak any louder.

"What did I do?"

Natasha shook her head, staring after her partner with an irritated twitch of her lips. After a few seconds, she went to curl herself at the end of Darcy's bed, gripping her ankle, just like she had done with Coulson a while back.

Darcy smiled at her, happy despite herself. Apparently the spy decided to treat her like Phil, and that warmed Darcy's heart.

Maybe she didn't managed to get Barton to like her, but the red head seemed to have adopted her.

Adopted her was a good term. She felt like her little sister, which she dragged everywhere and all that jazz.

And hit her some times. Often. All the time. Fighting lessons, she called it.

But Darcy loved it. She was pretty sure the only way to bond with the spy was through fighting. So she did.

She never found to way to bond with Barton.

Natasha pursed her lips and tightened her grip around the ankle.

"Barton's an idiot Darcy. He'll come around."

Darcy sighed.

"What if he doesn't? Everyone just looks at me with those fucking looks, like I'm missing something, and I know I'm an imbecile and I shouldn't even be interested in him, because I'm three universes away from his league. And I'll get through it, I swear, but please, leave it alone. You're not helping me ignoring it. I'll get over it"

Natasha pursed her lips.

"You don't have to ignore it. You don't have to get over it, Darcy."

She swallowed heavily.

"What, because he'll magically become interested? It's Barton we're talking about, Natasha. If he was interested, he would have _asked!"_

Natasha sighed, and leaned forward and drew Darcy into a tight hug. Darcy froze, and melted into it.

The spy released her after exactly 4.3 seconds. She looked squarely into Darcy's eyes, cupping her jaw.

"The doctors say you'll be fine in a week. In a week, you're going to get up, I'm going to help you get back into shape, and Phil and I are going to help you and Clint, because this is getting ridiculous."

Darcy went to reply, to protest, but Natasha tightened in fingers into her cheeks.

"Shut up, and go to sleep."

Natasha let her face go, and pushed her on the shoulder until she was lying again. Then she started messing with Darcy's feet.

Darcy was a sleepy pile of goo in about ten seconds.

She was sleeping goo in thirty more.


	9. Chapter 9

Darcy was released a few days later, with a promise to attend every one of Phil's appointments herself and to commit to her physical therapy.

Bruce and Natasha always swore to the medical team they would keep an eye on her-aka force her to do all her exercises and test her at least once a day for everything they could come up with. Darcy was pretty sure Tony had programmed JARVIS to monitor her all the time, and to call the docs if anything seemed wrong.

Darcy wasn't sure how she felt about all the mother hen behavior. Her parents had always been of the 'Let her do whatever she likes and fix her own messes' philosophy, so the overbearing attitude of the other inhabitants was something new to her.

The only two to give her a break were Coulson, who simply smiled and let her suffer through the other's concern, and Barton, because she hadn't seen him for over a week.

Ever since he ran away from her room.

He avoided her at all costs, sometimes disappearing from the room seconds before she entered. Any time she asked Phil or Natasha, they would tell her they just saw him, he was doing fine, he was still living in the Tower.

But Darcy never saw him. Once, she had heard him argue with Tony in the kitchen, and walked that way because the conversation between the both of them was far overdue. By the time she got there, Tony was staring wide eyed at an open air vent, and Barton was, again, nowhere to be seen or heard.

Darcy had huffed, and whirled around, storming off, though not fast enough not to hear Tony's cry of "This is getting FUCKING ridiculous!". She elected to ignore it. Ignoring Tony was one of her favorite pastimes. One of the billionaire's was to make her pay attention to him.

So far the score was Darcy 13, Tony 11. JARVIS was keeping it on one of the screens in the living room. He also displayed how often Natasha was able to sneak up on Tony against the number of time the billionaire was able to get a reaction out of her.

The score was 28 for the spy and 5 for Tony.

Anyway, the point was, Darcy was pampered and given pretty much everything she wanted at the moment, because Tony Stark is a big softy under the thick asshole armor. And yet, the thing she wanted the most at the moment, the ability to talk to Barton, she couldn't have. Because as much as the others seemed to think to situation was ridiculous, there's not much they can do to force a master assassin to do something he really doesn't want to do.

Darcy resented the term master assassin when it applied to a man apparently no more mature than a kindergartener. The only thing she wanted was to tell him she liked him, because she was really, really fed up of having it weighting on her chest.

And he just ran away. She knew he didn't like her and all that jazz. And she really just wanted to tell him because she hated being in limbo. She needed to be sure of where she stood.

She was trying to be a mature grown up, and he was avoiding her at all costs because he felt guilty. And because he didn't like her. And god did she hate him at the moment.

She never really understood what people meant when they said they liked and hated someone at the same time. She did now. God did she know.

She wanted to scream. She tried it. It helped a bit. Not much, because it was just basically bellowing wordlessly in the middle of her room alone, but still. It felt good.

"My, my, Cayenne, what's got your knickers in a twist?"

Uh. Not so alone after all. Darcy whirled around to face Tony, who was leaning in the door way, apparently deeply amused. Darcy wanted to go and slap him but, as great as that would feel, she would be misdirecting her anger. And she was trying to act mature and adult-like at the moment. She took a deep breath, and forced a tight smile to stretch across her lips.

"Nothing, just trying some stress relief techniques Bruce showed me."

Tony slowly arched a sardonic eyebrow, asking her silently if she thought he was an idiot. Darcy kept herself from mentioning he was, because really sometimes the billionaire could be thick. But on the present matter, he was probably more informed and up to date than she was. Since he actually talked to Barton. She swallowed her different smart-ass reply and waited for his.

He cocked his head, sizing her up.

"Barton's an idiot."

She snorted, looking away and fixing her stare on the window to his left.

"Yeah. Everyone has been telling me that. It honestly doesn't change a lot about our current situation."

Tony smirked.

"I know it doesn't. But if you want to talk with someone about stupid men who took forever to get their head out of their asses, I'm sure Pepper would be glad to discuss it with you but… He'll come around."

Darcy snapped her head back.

"Why is everybody saying that? No he won't! He hates me! You're not doing me any favors by trying to give me hope."

Tony sighed.

"He doesn't hate you, Darcy."

"He doesn't make that very obvious."

"And it was evident you loved him when you screamed at him for everything he said."

Darcy's throat tightened, and she shook her head.

"I don't love him."

Tony looked deeply skeptical, and leaned forward.

"Whatever you say, girl. Just remember he isn't the only one to blame for this."

Darcy shook her head.

"I'm trying to fix it."

He nodded and turned around, walking back to his lab.

"I know."

Darcy groaned, and let herself fall back on the bed, spread eagle, staring at the ceiling. She resented them for that. Insinuating he might like her as well. That it wasn't just her. That all he needed was a bit of time, and he would confess his undying love for her. Hope was so dangerous. It hurt so badly when reality let you down. She did her best to crush that burgeoning possibility that sprouted in her head.

She would tell Barton, and he would reject her. He would laugh at her and send her to hell, and she would be all set to brood for a few days, and then get over it.

She couldn't wait for the get over it part. But the damn archer wasn't giving her the chance to do that. If he was trying to piss her off more than he ever did, he was doing it right. Darcy needed to talk to him. Like, four days ago. She wasn't even able to ask JARVIS for updates. She wasn't sure if the AI was staying neutral or if he was on Barton's side, but the end result was the same.

She was still as helpless.

She sighed, and turned around, stuffing her head into her pillow.

She hated men so much right now. So, so, so much.

OOOOOOOOO

A few minutes later, Tony came back, peering through the door.

"Oh, yeah. I actually had a good reason to come here, other than listening to your maudlin ramblings."

Darcy flipped him off without bothering to look up. She heard him snigger, and smirked in answer in her pillow. She waited for him to elaborate. She could almost see him cock his head with his infuriating grin.

"You know, since you and the Agent are all better now, I thought we could celebrate."

Darcy did raise her head at this. She arched an eyebrow at him, urging him to get to the point faster. Really.

"You know, like a party."

Darcy sighed.

"A party?"

He nodded, amused by her deadpan tone. The one she borrowed from Phil.

"Yeah, a little something, not too big. I'll do everything, you'll simply have to enjoy it all."

Darcy rolled her eyes.

"Tony, you know parties aren't really Phil's thing. And I'm not really in the mood."

Tony sighed, and shook his head.

"Sorry, Cayenne, I wasn't asking your permission, simply advising you. I'm throwing a party, and you're both going to come."

"Tony."

He smirked, the Cheshire Cat's celestial twin. Darcy couldn't help but brace herself for his next statement.

"Clint'll be there."

Darcy groaned and fell back on her bed.

"Fuck you, Stark."

He smirked at her and cocked his head.

"See, I told you it was a good idea."

She groaned even more, shaking her head.

"Fuck you so much, Stark."

He cackled and skipped away, calling over his shoulder.

"Shut up and be grateful, welp."

She sighed, and screamed again. She amended her previous statement. She knew how she felt about Tony's helpfulness.

She fucking loved it.

She giggled, doubling over. It was so fucking ridiculous.

You can run but you can't hide, Barton!

OOOOOO

A few days later, Pepper came into the living room, with the air she sported when she was humoring her boyfriend about something. Phil and Darcy looked up, the Agent weary. Darcy had an inkling this had to do with the party the billionaire told her about. Tony hadn't mentioned it again, but Darcy knew him well enough to know it didn't mean it had forgotten about it. He simply was good on his word of organizing the thing all by himself.

But she was pretty sure Tony hadn't talked to Phil about it. That was probably good. No way the Agent would have accepted if he had known. Pepper gave them a weary smile.

"Good morning, Phil, Darcy."

The agent spoke slowly.

"Pepper."

"Tony told me you both could use a wardrobe change, so I thought we could go shopping today before I leave for Sydney."

Phil arched an eyebrow at her, but didn't find any reason not to. He looked at Darcy, nearly pleading with her to give him a reason not to go. She smiled at Pepper.

"That sounds good. But I don't really have a lot of money at the moment…"

Pepper shook her hand, and waved a dismissive hand she clearly picked from Tony.

"Don't be stupid. It's on Tony."

Darcy felt her eyes open like saucers, staring at the other woman.

"You're offering me to go shopping with a Stark's budget? I don't care if you turned agoraphobic since you moved in, but we are going."

Phil pursed his lips, but nodded. Pepper clapped her hands satisfied, smiling widely.

"Good. We should go now, before we hit traffic."

Darcy nodded and jumped off the couch, bolting towards the door. Phil sighed and followed at a more sedate pace. Pepper and the brunette shared a brief look of complicity, and turned away before Phil caught them. No way would the agent come with them if he suspected something was up.

And no way would Darcy take the chance to miss a shopping spree at Tony's expense. She also knew Phil would love to buy himself a few suits with the billionaire's money.

Phil's relationship with the engineer was still as complicated as it ever had been. With the undertone of male pride which won't admit that he actually cares about the other man. Darcy loved the undertones. She lived to make them admit their undertones. She hadn't gotten anywhere on that regard yet, but she wasn't giving up. She would accomplish her mission.

Anyway, the point was, the sick pleasure Phil would get from using Tony's money would erase any little doubts he had.

So they climbed into one of Tony's cars, the one so comfortable it shouldn't even be legal. You can't use any other car after you used one of Stark's. You were ruined for the rest of your life.

Luckily, Darcy didn't leave the Tower much. She was still required to be in a five minutes radius of Phil, so she hadn't had a lot of freedom as to where she went.

Anyway, let Darcy tell you. Shopping with Pepper Potts was a fucking magical thing. Darcy always, always had the worst time of her life finding clothes that fit her right because, hello, BOOBS! With boobs like hers, top searching was a nightmare. Either it fit over her chest or it fit over her belly. Never both.

But with Pepper Potts, suddenly, she found blouses that were perfect. That fit her just fine. She was in Top Heaven.

She considered marrying the other woman. And she said as much. The tall woman simply giggled.

"I'm sorry, Darcy, but I'm taken."

Darcy did her best not to be jealous. She really would have liked to be able to say the same. But no, she had to fall for the guy who hated her. She looked back to her reflection, watching herself in that perfect red blouse.

Maybe he would like that.

She shook herself. Who cared what Barton thought? Well she did, but honestly, what difference did it make? Honestly, Barton would probably simply ignore her all night.

She would have to corner him at some point. She would try and get Natasha's and Phil's help. She had to talk to him. She had tried to talk to him for a week.

And yet, now that she knew she would have the occasion to do so, she felt her nerves fire up. Seriously. She had to get some control over that.

She was a strong woman. She could do this. She knew how it would end. Barton would reject her, and that would be the end of it. Really.

And it wasn't as if they were close, and she was risking their friendship by making a move. No, everything was fine. It would be awkward, but it always had been, so…

Fuck. She had started hoping. Well, when everything went down, she could blame Tony Stark for it hurting so much. She hated him at the moment. And she knew why Pepper chose that day to go shopping. They would all have to dress up nice.

Barton would have to dress up nice, and Darcy would drool all over him. She hated him. Really. How dare he save her life?

Now don't get her wrong. She had a lot of time to reflect over her feelings for him. Because, yeah, she wasn't emotionally constipated and as much as she hated that she liked him, she still did. And she liked to be able to reason with her feelings.

She didn't like the fact he shouted at her. She wasn't masochistic. Really. She liked him because of the way he took care of Phil. And Natasha. For the way he did everything he could to atone for his actions while under Loki's control. For the way he did everything to be a hero when he was brought up to be anything but.

For the way he saved her life, even when he couldn't care less about her. Because he was a hero, and he didn't want to admit it.

Because he was as much of a hero as Steve or Tony, but more human, more flawed. More approachable. She wanted to see the human. The Barton under the Hawkeye mask.

And Barton was the guy that would always end up looking at her strangely, and saying something awkward that would set off another argument. The guy that would help Tony needle Bruce with that adorable crinkle around his left eye. The only person on Earth able to reason with Natasha when she was intent on something.

The only guy able to be more of a smartass bastard than Stark. The guy who would sit beside Phil while he did all of his exercises.

That's the guy she liked.

She knew it had begun with a bit of hero worship. Or a lot of it. Anyway, yeah, she knew that. But then she started to pay attention to these little things.

And she fell.

She hated herself for it. And everyone knew she fell. Except Barton.

Or he knew and that was why he was avoiding her. Maybe he didn't want to have this conversation.

But just watch her. She would do this.

Fuck her nerves. She would do it.

She was a strong woman.

If Pepper and Phil noticed that she was absentminded, they didn't comment upon it. And she was grateful for their silence.

She was pretty sure if they asked her about it, she would chicken out and run away. She bought a lot of pretty things and both she and Pepper spared Phil the torture of the shoe store.

The agent found a few good looking suits that Pepper gushed over, and that Darcy had no idea what made them any different from all the others. She wasn't an expert in man's fashion. Pepper seemed to be an expert in everything.

Phil frowned a bit when Pepper insisted that they changed into one of their knew outfits before they arrived at the Tower, but he decided to roll with it. Both Pepper and Darcy did the same, and when they entered the Tower, Darcy didn't even try to imagine what they looked like.

Probably something depraved.

Which was the exact reason she didn't want to imagine it. She just couldn't think of Phil like that. Of doing anything like that with him. It was just wrong. The receptionist opened wide eyes when they entered, following them with her eyes until they reached the elevator. Just because she could, Darcy gave her a saucy grin just before the door closed.

The receptionist started choking, and Darcy giggled as they started going up. Phil and Pepper gave her a questioning look, but Darcy shook her head, refusing to explain the situation. It would imply talking about escorts, and pimps, and everything that almost made sense in her head, but would get her a one-way ticket into an asylum if she tried to voice it.

She wasn't overly found of asylums. They looked ghastly on TV. Darcy wouldn't survive three days in an asylum.

So she elected to keep her mouth shut for once, and keep her living situation in the Tower.

Darcy didn't know what to expect when she arrive at the tower, but whatever it was, it wasn't this.

Although she probably should have, the guy organizing the party being Tony Stark and all that.

When the elevator's door opened, Darcy had no choice but to take two steps back, keeping -barely- her hands from covering her ears. Little something. Not too big.

Yeah right.

Why oh why did she ever believe Tony Stark?

The common floor of their section of the Tower was stuffed with people, most of whom she'd never, ever seen in her life. The usual lights were mostly out and flashing, colorful ones replaced them, giving the usual spacey, airy, modern living room the look of a dance club. Music was pounding so loud Darcy couldn't even fathom how they didn't hear from inside the elevator. Or how the people below couldn't hear them. The windows were blackened, faking the middle of the night.

Oh, did she mention there was people _everywhere? _Because, yeah. _Everywhere._

There was even a skinny dude hanging out on the ceiling, apparently glued, somehow, by the pad of his hands and feet. Like a spider.

Of course Tony Stark would invite a spider dude to a party. Where is the fun in a party without a spider dude?

"Pepper, Cayenne, Agent?"

They turned around to see Tony make his way toward them, a blindingly white Tony Stark smile firmly in place as he whirled through the crowd with a practiced ease.

Phil was nearly scowling by now. Tony wrapped an affectionate arm around Pepper's waist, kissing her cheek just long enough to make a statement. Then he leaned toward the older man.

"Come on, _Phil, _loosen up a bit! Have fun, meet new people! I'm sure we could find you a real cellist this time!"

Phil rolled his eyes, and both Pepper and Darcy giggled. The cellist had been a running gag ever since the Agent admitted to Stark it had been a lie to stop people from inquiring and meddling with the his personal life.

Tony Stark, being who he was, took the admission as a permission to meddle with Phil's love life, to the unending horror of the latter.

"Thank you Mr. Stark. I think I'll leave you to your charming company."

Tony watched him leave with a small, satisfied smirk, and called out.

"If you disappear to go hide in your room, I'm sending Barton and Natasha to get you back."

Phil ignored him, and made his way toward the place where Bruce stood, obviously awkward and clearly forced to be there, if the way he kept shooting longing glances to the stairs leading to the lab were any indication.

Tony turned back to Darcy.

"Barton's at the bar, kid. Go get him."

Darcy shot him a stern look, but walked the way Tony indicated by a jerk of his head. Where a small reading corner once stood, Tony had managed to fit a wooden bar, complete with bartender. Darcy spotted Barton at once, talking with a weird man wearing a medieval looking blue tunic and a red and gold cape.

Darcy had to say, he didn't wear the tights as well as Steve.

Anyway, Darcy was intent on going and asking Barton for a talk, but she didn't got there.

"I don't believe we had been introduced?"

Darcy turned around to face whoever spoke to her. She was surprised she could hear anyone with music that loud, but when she faced him, she understood the proximity probably had something to with it.

She found herself face to chest, and had to raise her head so high her neck strained. The guy had to be as tall as Steve, an easy, flirtatious smile tugging his lips. She couldn't help but smile back, because yeah. Seeeexy.

"I really don't think so."

She stuck her hand out.

"Darcy Lewis. A pleasure."

He caught it, and shook it smoothly before caressing her knuckles lightly.

"Johnny Storm. Care for a dance, Darcy?"

Darcy bit her lip, cocking her head to the side.

"Johnny Storm? I think I've heard that name before..."

He grinned even more, leaning forward, whispering loudly to be heard over the music.

"Human Torch, member of the Fantastic Four, at your service."

Darcy smiled coyly in return. Yeah, that guy was good. Not as good as Barton as far as she was concerned, but he had the advantage of actually being interested in her. She shot a look to the bar, where Barton still was, and probably imagined the way his head snapped back to his interlocutor like he had just been watching her. She looked back to Johnny, thinking hard.

'Hey hottie -pun intended- just let me go over there and get rejected by the guy over , the one I'm seriously smitten with, and I'm coming right back to you. You know, so you can distract me with some dancing and possibly some rebound sex.'

But the man seem to notice she was about to decline- temporarily -his offer, and took a step forward so that their chests were touching, one of his hands coming to rest on the small of her back.

"Come on, beautiful, it'll be fun."

She didn't doubt it, but if she didn't talk to Barton right now, she would never have the courage to do it again and she didn't want to do anything with this guy while wondering about what ifs. They heard someone clear his throat behind them.

They both turned around to see Barton standing there. Johnny didn't move his hand from Darcy's back though. No matter the fact Barton was glaring very deadly and sharp daggers at the younger man. Darcy's breathe was stuck in her throat. Why was Barton there?

Maybe he knew Johnny from somewhere else. She didn't know, but Barton was kind of hot when he was angry, especially when it was at someone else than her.

"Storm."

The young man leered.

"Birdy."

Barton's jaw clenched and Darcy was a bit scared he would punch Johnny right here and now. Whatever happened before obviously had left the archer with a bitter taste in his mouth.

"I'd like to talk with Miss Lewis."

The Torch raised an eyebrow with an amused turn of the lips. Darcy was impressed at his nerves.

"Yeah, well me and Miss Lewis were going to go for a dance."

Barton took a step forward, and managed to increase his threat aura by about ten levels. Even Storm, who had so far appeared immune to Barton's scary looks, finally let her go and took a step back, crossing his arms over his chest in a defensive stance.

"Whatever man, I didn't know she was taken."

Darcy was about to correct the Fantastic Four member, but she noticed Barton was walking away. Oh well, she could get on with this later. She ran after him, fuming.

He walked into the kitchen, and finally stopped. Darcy started to rant, furious.

"What the Hell was that? You decided avoiding me wasn't enough anymore, you want other people to do the same?"

He turned around, a weird expression in his blue eyes, one Darcy couldn't understand. Not that she ever did. But she could get angry. She didn't get that. She spoke harshly, demanding an answer.

"Barton?"

He whispered brokenly, so low she nearly missed it.

"I'm sorry."

Then he took two steps toward her, cupped her face softly. Darcy had barely the time to notice the tense lines around his lips before they descended on hers.

He was kissing her.

Pause.

Barton was kissing her.

There was something wrong.

Barton was kissing her, and she wasn't doing anything. She needed to do something. She pushed back into the kiss, melting into it. She sighed, and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling herself up.

She marveled at the strength in the muscles under her arms. She tried to enjoy the situation as much as she could. It wouldn't last. Anytime soon the archer would come back to his senses. He would push her away and blame it on the alcohol, or whatever rivalry he seemed to have with Johnny Storm.

He would push her away, and it would be done, and she would have to go on while knowing just how well Barton could kiss.

And God could he kiss. She was in heaven. After a long while, they separated, panting heavily. She looked him in the eyes, trying to understand. Trying to know.

"Barton?"

His jaw clenched momentarily.

"Clint."

She hesitated, and repeated.

"Clint. What's going on? Why did you-"

He interrupted her, breathing harshly, eyes dashing everywhere around the room, never settling on her for more than a fraction of second. He spoke lowly. He sounded a bit lost.

"Lewis. Darcy, I'm- I'm an idiot, and I'm sorry, but... Fuck, I hate this. Would you go out with me?"

Darcy pushed herself away from his arms, staring at him in disbelief. She could feel her mouth hanging open. She also felt herself unable to pick it up. He seemed distressed at her reaction, but he didn't try to reach out for her.

"Darcy?"

She shook her head, trying to clear it.

"We need to talk."

He nodded, jaw clenched so tight she feared he was going to break a tooth.

"I know. I know I've been an asshole, but please. Give me another chance."

She stared at him for a long time.

"I've been a bitch. And we need to talk."

His eyes dimmed a bit, and he nodded as he turned around. She pinched her lips, and continued in a small, shy voice.

"And I think we could do that over dinner."

He whirled back around, eyes wide and demanding. She stayed put, and he slowly walked back to her, reaching out to cup a cheek with one hand. Their words weren't anything more than a wispered breath, just loud enough to hear each other. His voice was harsh.

"Friday, seven o'clock."

She grinned slowly.

"Sounds perfect."

"And in the mean time?"

Darcy pushed forward, until she felt his breath brush against her face, coming out in small, disbelieving puffs.

"I suggest more kissing."

He grinned, wide and happy, directed at her for the first time.

"I think I can get behind that."

She hooked her fingers into his belt loops caressing his lower lip with hers.

"Come here fledgling."

He chuckled.

"I'm in so much trouble."

"Yeah, you are."

And she pushed her tongue into his mouth, reveling into the groan she earned from it.


	10. Chapter 10

Two years later

Darcy was struggling to zip her dress, twisting one way and the other, to no avail. She groaned in frustration, turning to try and see what she was doing.

"Need help?"

She raised her head to look in the mirror. She smiled when she saw the reflection of Clint, leaning on the doorway. She nodded, biting her lips a bit and going back to her fruitless efforts. Suddenly, he was just behind her, swatting her hands away lightly. He finished closing the dress, and then wrapped his arms around her waist. Darcy leaned back against him, basking in the solidness of his chest.

"My, my, Miss Lewis, you should be ashamed to try and look all grown up. Men could get the wrong idea."

Darcy arched an eyebrow, smirking at him.

"Well, fledgling, I should now I'm nothing but a gold digger."

Ever since Phil had gone back to S.H.I.E.L.D., with Darcy as his assistant, rumors had flown all over the place. Apparently, even when he just came back from death, Phil Coulson _couldn't _ need an assistant. So he had to be doing her.

Darcy had spent the first three months getting offers from the entirety of the single -or not single- male population of the Division. And some of the females.

When Clint had finally gotten fed up with everyone circling around his girlfriend and decided to go public with their relationship, well, things didn't get much better. Except that now Clint had a good reason to glare away all Darcy's suitors.

Otherwise, it meant that S.H.I.E.L.D.'S employees thought that both Phil and Clint were doing her. And the rest of the world thought she was a mindless groupie Hawkeye "Hot Guy" used as arm candy. Darcy had gotten over it pretty quickly. She had called her parents prior to their public statement, to warn them and assure them her relationship was based on love. And arguments. But mostly love.

With it all, Darcy's social life, even now that she was technically allowed to go out with other people -they officially trusted her- well she didn't. She had tried to catch up with her old school friends, but the only thing they had been interested in was her boyfriend and whether or not she could hook them up with Captain America.

Stupid people. Wanting to go after the Black Widow's boyfriend.

Anyway, she mostly hung out with the Avengers. Not that she was complaining. So here she was today. With Barton smirking at her.

"You are a lousy gold digger. A good digger would have been waiting naked on the bed for me to have a torrid round of sex before going."

Darcy turned around, swatting him on the chest.

"Well, you're going to have to deal with your lousy girlfriend, because we are _not _missing Pepper and Tony's wedding."

Clint pouted at her, eyes dancing with mirth. She chuckled and kissed his lower lip chastely, before turning toward the mirror for a few last minute adjustments.

"How is Tony?"

Clint cackled, sitting at the foot of the bed, eyes dancing over her.

"All over the place. Bruce and Rhodey are trying to restrain him."

She arched an eyebrow at him, through the mirror.

"And why aren't you helping them?"

He shrugged and she smiled, because he knew exactly how much she liked it when he played with his shoulder's muscles like that. And she also knew she wasn't going to do anything at the moment.

"They had the situation under control. They didn't need me. And seriously, between the two of them and Cap? There wasn't any room left to breathe. So yeah, I came here to help my girlfriend. It wouldn't do to miss the wedding."

She rolled her eyes at him, clasping her necklace on.

"Smartass."

He chuckled in answer, throwing his head back.

"Vixen."

She wriggled her hips alluringly, and he laughed even louder. She turned toward him and pecked him again on the mouth, before applying her lipstick again. She walked toward the door.

"I'm going to see Pepper."

"I resent that you are a bride's maid and I'm not in Tony's party."

Darcy chuckled.

"You simply shouldn't have blown up Tony's new armor just when he was choosing."

And spread his arms wide, looking innocent and disappointed.

"Yeha, but really! Even Phil's a bride's maid! I want to be a bride's maid. I'd look great in a dress."

She cut him an unimpressed look, which he saw right through, as usual.

"Sorry, babe, but you haven't got enough boobage to pull that one off. Leave that to the professionals."

She squeezed her own breasts for a little more effect. She chuckled when his eyes automatically dropped to them, darkening a little bit. She patted his hair.

"Pervert."

He caught her hand and kissed it.

"Scamp."

She left him back there and she knew in a few seconds he would go find himself someone else to bother. Hopefully, he wouldn't go bug either Tony, Pepper, or God forbid, Natasha. The Widow took her responsibility as Maid of Honor very, very seriously. No one would disturb the ceremony even if they had to slash the throat of the entire population of Manhattan.

In Pepper's room, Natasha was putting the final touches on the tall woman's hair. Phil was sitting on the chair in the corner, typing on his phone, probably tightening the security around the ceremony. Darcy smiled at them, and seated herself carefully on the bed.

"Clint wants a dress."

Phil lifted his eyes, and shared a grin with her. Natasha sighed and rolled her eyes playfully.

"Please, like he could fill it."

Darcy shrugged, smiling at the spy. Pepper was listening to them silently, still, but face tensed. Darcy's mother had told her the best thing her bridal party ever did for her was to distract her on the day of her wedding. If Darcy was good at something, it was digressing and distracting.

"Well, he does have a nice ass, I'm sure it'd look good in sapphire blue satin."

Natasha, surprisingly, giggled. Apparently, even Russian spies were vulnerable to weddings.

"Yeah, well, I'll arrange something for you, Cayenne."

Darcy nodded, because, honestly, between her and Natasha, the bride's maid dresses were adjusted for -for a lack of better term- stacked women. Phil had received the permission to wear the same suit as the other men, despite Tony's protests that he had to wear a dress, for Bruce if nothing else.

Natasha had hit him upside the head and commanded a suit for Phil. And a dress she delivered to Bruce's room. Bruce had turned red as a tomato.

Which was probably Tony and Natasha's prime goal.

Darcy smiled at them, definitely happy. She liked weddings. She was so happy for Pepper, for having managed to pin the man of her dreams down. She was happy for Tony to have found a woman who put up with all his _quirks._

Not that her boyfriend wasn't great. Clint was awesome. Most of the time.

Because, seriously, with the way their relationship begun, no one, least of all the both of them, would have been naïve enough to believe everything would go smoothly. They argued. A lot.

Over stupid things.

Last week, it was because of, well, Thor. Again. Clint was slightly jealous. Not that he didn't trust her. He knew she wouldn't cheat on him. He was jealous because of the men he judged to be better than he was.

On the day he kissed her for the first time, he had been jealous of Johnny Storm because he had had the guts to ask her out when he couldn't.

So, ever since Thor came back from Asgard, and moved into the Tower, well they discovered the god didn't understand the concept of shame.

So he walked around more often than not completely, stark naked. And well, it gave Clint a complex.

So he was munching at his breakfast, glaring sullenly at the God who just exited, when Darcy entered. She raised an eyebrow at him, and asked.

"What's the matter?"

"Thor."

"What about him?"

"He's naked. Again."

"Yeah, so what? It's good eye candy."

And that was it. They were gone for a good hour, arguing about self-esteem, and aesthetic appreciation, and whatever they could think about. By the time they became conscious of their surroundings again, Thor looked a bit chagrined he was the cause of such an argument and Natasha and Tony were curled up on the couch with a bowl of popcorn.

And that usually happened about once a week, to varying degrees. But, in the whole, they were happy.

Really happy.

And it was the best relationship she ever had. Her parents didn't understand. Clint and her were always on their best behavior on the rare evenings they saw them. But their main means of communication had always been snark and sarcasm, and basically as opposed to her parent's quiet, peaceful, symbiotic relationship.

But it worked.

It was all she was asking for. Finally, Hill, who had been designated as Fury's assistant in the ceremony since Phil was otherwise occupied, came to the door and popped her head in.

"Come on girls," unimpressed look from Phil, "it's time. The boys are waiting."

They all rose to their feet. Her, then Phil, then Natasha, then, finally, in her magnificent, flowing white dress, Pepper.

Darcy concentrated with all her might on not tripping while she walked down the aisle. And for a moment, she imagined it was her turn. That it wasn't Tony Stark in front of her, struggling to look over her shoulder, to catch a glimpse of his fiancé.

It wasn't him, it was Clint, with his infuriating smirk and his dancing eyes. Standing a bit too straight. Doing his best to look like it was no big deal but secretly wishing to jump all over the place.

She shook herself and focused on the task at hand. Today was Pepper's and Tony's day. When she reached her spot, she found Clint in the crowd, just beside Thor, who Jane managed to stuff into a suit. The astrophysicist was on the other side of her boyfriend, already teary because she was still, and forever would be, a hopeless romantic. What was more romantic than a known rebel, playboy billionaire finding the good woman and settling down with her?

Darcy didn't know and didn't care.

As far as she was concerned, one of the best perks of Thor's return was that now, as one of the Avengers' significant other's, Jane was allowed to live in the Tower. And talk to Darcy. The ex-intern hadn't allowed herself to think about her previous boss too often, because she hadn't been able to contact her and there was no point in what ifs as far as she was concerned.

She beamed at the three of them. And at the boys on the other side. Rhodey stood tall and proud beside his best friend. Bruce looked a bit twitchy and it was a bit weird to see him in a fitted suit, and not his usual two sizes too big for him clothing. Steve looked happy, if a bit teary himself.

Tony simply looked like he couldn't believe this was actually happening. And when Pepper entered, my god.

He had seen an angel.

The ceremony was short and sweet, every one finishing it in tears. Darcy spent her time between watching Tony and Pepper and throwing looks at Clint. As far as she was concerned, her archer of a boyfriend paid attention to nothing but her.

She did her best not to blush.

She wasn't entirely sure she succeeded, but there were so many things she could blame it upon, she wasn't too concerned about it.

The reception was over the top, because Tony requested to be in charge of it. Pepper could do whatever she wanted with the actual wedding, but Tony handled everything that happened after.

It took place outside of town, in an enormous property Darcy didn't even know if he rented, owned prior, or simply bought it for the wedding. None of the options would have actually surprised her.

She was seated between Clint and Phil, in front of Jane and Thor. Pepper and Tony were just three seats down the table. Clint leaned forward, to look at Phil and Bruce, on her other side.

"And you guys, when are you tying the knot?"

Phil glared at Clint.

"Considering you started dating far before us, I don't think you should be the one to ask."

Clint arched an eyebrow in answer to that, and Darcy forced herself not to interpret the gesture like she wanted to. Clint probably didn't mean anything by it. Bruce worried his lip between his teeth.

"I don't think it would be a good idea…"

Darcy leaned back to slap his shoulder around Phil.

"Shut up. No one cares about the Other guy."

He sighed.

"He is immortal, and so am I, as far as I am know, and-"

Darcy beamed at him.

"Well, that's great! Elrond will stay with you. Elves don't die."

Clint burst out laughing, and even Thor and Jane, who never got the full story, because honestly, far too long, chuckled a bit at Phil's and Bruce's expressions.

Tony got up and walked to the podium he designated for the speeches.

"Alright, I know I haven't got the best history with speeches, so I'll keep that one nice and quick. Virginia Potts, I love you."

He looked at Pepper with such intensity, such care, that everyone shivered slightly. And that was it. No one would ever dare to say Tony Stark was _ not _emotionally constipated, but Pepper was beaming at him like it was the most wonderful he could have said.

Anyone who knew Tony Stark knew it was better for him to say a few words rather than to let his mouth escape his control.

Pepper wouldn't appreciate having their secrets spilled in front of everybody, so that was it.

Tony had also forbidden anymore speeches than his, Pepper's, Rhodey's and Natasha's. Darcy had wanted to kiss him when he said that, because she had no idea what she was supposed to say. 'Thank you for taking me in like a lost puppy?' Somehow, she had a feeling it would have taken something more, but she had no idea what.

The dinner ended shortly after, and the dance floor was opened. Darcy tried to convince Clint to have one dance with her, while Tony and Pepper went for the customary first dance. The archer was exceptionally stubborn, insisting he couldn't dance. When the song ended, a tall man with brown hair and red and black eyes took a woman with white striped hair onto the dance floor. Darcy was pretty sure she had seen him pick pocket someone during the wedding, and doubted she wanted to get too close. She was a bit afraid to lose her necklace.

When Fury asked Hill, and they started to whirl around the space far too easily, she decided she didn't want to humiliate herself by going there with her boyfriend who apparently couldn't dance.

He seemed to read her thoughts, and pressed behind her.

"Want to go somewhere more private."

She nodded, and he brought her to a balcony, where they could admire the garden of the mansion they were occupying at the moment. He looked at her, a small grin curling his lips as he tugged her closer by the hips. She settled between his legs as he leaned on the railing.

"You'll miss the bouquet throw."

She smiled, wrapping her arms around his neck. They weren't rushed, simply enjoying the ease and the warmth that came with being close to each other.

"I can live with that."

Clint cocked his hand, his fingers tracing little circles on her hips.

"Don't you want to get married?"

She rolled her eyes at him.

"Not because of a superstition. And certainly not because my boyfriend feels like he has to."

"But in the future?"

"Whenever you're ready."

She kissed him, nice, slow, tender. He sighed against her.

"I love you."

She smiled against his lips. It had taken him almost a year for him to admitted he loved her.

"I love you too."

He tightened his arm around her waist and simply held her, hugging her for a long moment.

"Hey! That's where you're hiding!"

She chuckled, as they separated. Clint growled at Tony.

"Dude, it's not fair to cockblock other dudes. Just because you're married now-"

Tony interrupted him, throwing an arm around his shoulder. The rest of the team started filling the room

"Exactly. It's my wedding, I do what I want."

Darcy chuckled.

"God help us."

Phil stood by the door, eyes crinkling. The agent in the last few years had become less of a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and more of an honorary Avenger. He still technically worked for Fury, but everyone knew the director would never risk asking Phil to chose between them or S.H.I.E.L.D. because no one knew what he would chose.

Darcy always felt it was good for both Fury and the team to have someone that didn't _belong _ to them. Someone they had to work to keep on their side.

Someone who wouldn't take for granted they were right, and act accordingly. Phil leaned forward, amused.

"Like ditching your own wedding celebration."

Tony waved a lax hand.

"Stuffy, stupid people. Boring people. Ignore them."

Pepper sighed, and elbowed him in the ribs. Suddenly the door opened, and a blond, tall man barged into the room, tie crooked. His eyes zeroed on Tony instantly.

"Stark! Have you seen Bones around?"

Tony smirked and shook his head.

"Sorry, Cap'ain."

He groaned, and whirled back around, dashing in the hallway. Clint cackled.

"Who the hell was that?"

"Jim Kirk. Don't worry, he's not often planet side, I just was lucky. He does know how to put some atmosphere in a party."

Steve shook his head.

"A party you aren't attending."

"Who cares? I'll watch the tape later."

Jane shook her head.

"I am the only one who thought it was weird for him to be looking for bones?"

Tony started laughing madly, but refused to explain that one to anyone, despite Pepper's insistence.

Clint had wrapped an arm around Darcy's waist, and she leaned on him. She turned to whisper in his ear.

"Am I the only one who thinks this whole day has gone a bit too smoothly?"

He was about to answer when JARVIS, apparently now networked to the house, pipped in.

"Sir? Mister Wilson appears to be creating quite commotion downstairs because he tried to demonstrate his sword wielding abilities to Miss Thurman."

Tony chuckled.

"Don't worry JARVIS, Domino can handle herself."

"I wasn't worried about Miss Thurman, sir. I was worried about Mister Logan who decided to show Mister Wilson what a real blade show should look like…"

Darcy was laughing out loud by now, and she whispered breathlessly to Clint.

"How the hell is this my life?"

He grinned in answer.

"You love it."

She beamed at him.

"I do."

La fin

**A/N: And yes, that's it folks! So, I know a lot of you would like to read about the first date and all, but this had always been intended as a piece about the buildup, and nothing else. I'm just not ready to write another thirty chapters fic. I may write a one-shot about the dinner/date/talk, if I get inspiration, but I promise nothing. I just started school, so I'll have less time.**

**Anyhow, I want to thank all my readers, and especially my reviewers, you always lighten up my whole day! Thanks to my beta, she does such an amazing job!**

**On the whole, love you and read you soon,**

**Green Queen of Clubs**


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